Eye of the Beholder
by JasperIsAManlyMan
Summary: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Edward. So is monstosity, and I don't see anything monsterous about you."
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. I don't own it's characters. Stephenie Meyer does. Lucky woman.

"Are you sure you don't need help, Bella?" my mom Renee asked again. She had walked me down the departure gate, and was now trying to escort me to my seat on the plane to Seattle.

I sighed and nodded. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Alright then," she said, her voice choked. "Email me after you get to Charlie's. I love you."

I smiled up at her. "Don't worry about me," I urged. "You won't even notice I'm gone." I hugged my mom goodbye one last time, and carefully boarded the plane. Carefully because I am one of the clumsiest people on earth. And because I'm blind.

But as soon as I got on the plane, I started to regret telling her that I didn't need help. I was surrounded by a blanket of sound. People were talking over each other, stuffing their bags into the overhead compartments, listening to music, and all sorts of other things. That was a problem. I may be blind, but I can _hear_ incredibly well. If it's quiet enough, I can figure out how a room is shaped by listening to sound waves bounce off the walls, and hear each separate vibration in a sound. The sounds on the plane probably sounded normal to the people around me, but – with my sensitive ears – to me it was very, _very_ loud. Almost deafening. The chaotic maze of noise disoriented me. It was like being in a pitch black room, with people yelling and screaming all around me.

I blinked, and tried to tune it out as I walked down the aisle, using my cane to keep me from running into the seats. I knew what seat I was supposed to be in, so I counted rows as I passed them, until I had passed the right amount of rows. Then I reached up, and felt for the Braille next to the seat number to make sure I was in the right place. I found it, and felt carefully. _Eighteen B and C_. I smiled faintly – I was in eighteen B.

"Do you need help, Honey?" asked a woman's voice below and to my left.

I looked down, even though I couldn't see her. "I'm in eighteen B," I replied, "Are you sitting next to me?"

"Yes. Let me get up so you don't have to crawl over me."

I stepped back quickly to give her space. Her clothes rasped against the seat as she stood. I felt a gentle hand touch my elbow and expertly guide me forward, as if the woman helped blind people all the time. She tugged lightly when I was even with the seat, telling me when to turn and sit down. Once we were seated, I turned to her and thanked her. "You did that very well," I complemented.

She laughed. "Thank you. My niece is blind, so I've had a bit of practice. My name's Sherrie, by the way."

I smiled. "I'm Bella," I said, and extended my hand. Sherrie shook it, and started to say something else, but one of the flight attendants chose that moment to begin her lecture about seat belts, oxygen masks, and emergency exits.

Then the plane took off, and Sherrie asked me a question. "Why are you going to Seattle?"

I kept my smile in place with some difficulty. "I'm going to live with my father." I didn't want to live with him in the tiny, rainy town of Forks. I was going so that my mom could have more time with her new husband, Phil. He traveled a lot, and Mom had to stay home with me. It was making her unhappy, and I hated that. So I decided to move in with Charlie.

After a short pause, Sherrie dropped the subject. We didn't talk very much during the rest of the flight. I could hear Sherrie turning the pages of a book, and I listened to music. I also worried about how I would be received in my new school. My class in Phoenix had over three thousand students, and I hadn't been able to find very many friends there. Not that I had minded – I was never lonely. But now I was going to a high school with only three hundred fifty-seven people – in all _four _grades. I wondered if they would think of me as a blind freak, and not come anywhere near me, or if they would try to be pity-friends. I hated pity-friends, and would have preferred to be isolated rather than be surrounded by them. I have accepted the fact that I'm blind, but I don't like it when people patronize me because of it.

The plane began its decent, and the pilot's voice came out of the intercom, telling us to refasten our seat belts. I turned off my CD player, put it back in my carry-on bag, and pulled out he parka I had also packed. The plane touched down with a jerk, and taxied up the the arrival gate. The people around me got up, and waited their turn to get off the plane. I stayed in my seat so that I wouldn't have to battle the crowd. Sherrie said a quick goodbye, and left. After I heard most of the people leave, I stood, and made my way down the arrival gate with the help of a flight attendant. As soon as I was in the airport itself, I sat down in one of the chairs near the gate, and waited for Charlie, who was supposed to come pick me up.

I waited for ten minutes, and Charlie still didn't come. I started to worry that he had forgotten about me. I tried to take my mind off of the possibilities by taking my CD player back out and listening to _Wuthering Heights _on audio. Eventually, I became so absorbed in the story, that I forgot about my surroundings. Thus, when someone's hand clapped me on the shoulder, I jerked, startled, and gasped. I stood rapidly, tearing my headphones off. My eyes were wide, instinctively trying to see who it was that had frightened me, futile as it was.

"Sorry, Bells," a male voice said apologetically. I relaxed. That was Charlie's voice. Now that I was paying attention, I could smell him. He smelled like Old Spice and leather, the latter because of his leather sheriff's jacket.

"It's okay, Dad," I replied, giving him a smile. "I just wasn't paying attention."

His leather jacket crackled as he reached forward to give me a hug. I hugged him back.

"How long have you been waiting?" Charlie asked guiltily as he pulled away, and picked up my suitcase.

"I don't know." I answered truthfully. I had been too absorbed in the book.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier. I was working, and I lost track of time. When I looked up at the clock, and saw how late it was, I came as fast as I could," he explained as we walked through the airport to the doors, with me holding his arm to stay on track.

I smiled slightly, ruefully. I hoped that he would be able to remember to drop me off at school, and pick me up, or else these months were going to be difficult. I didn't want to have to continuously beg rides home from my new classmates.

Silence settled between us when we ran out of things to say. It wasn't uncomfortable, and I hoped that it would stay that way throughout the hours-long drive from Seattle to Forks. Charlie helped me into his police cruiser, and shut the door behind me. I heard him walk around the car, and sit down in the driver's seat with a sigh.

As we drove out of the city, all of the city noises faded. It was a silence unlike any other I had ever heard. The only sounds were the car engine, the rain, and the wind. Having lived in the big city of Phoenix my entire life, I had never been in a place where it was truly quiet. I _loved _it. It was so quiet that I could hear the rain pattering on the tree leaves, and hear the branches rustling in the strong wind, which also whooshed across the roof of the car. I could practically _feel _the land extending infinitely, _feel_ the trees, majestic and ancient. And – without the sounds present in the city – I felt like I was a part of it. It was incredible. A kind of peace came over me, and I realized that I had found something about Forks that I liked.

We pulled up to Charlie's small house on the edge of the forest. "Well, here we are," Charlie said. He helped me out of the car, and led me up a short flight of stairs to my new room. He stopped there, and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Welcome home, Bella," he muttered, and left me to unpack. A few seconds later, I heard him turn on the TV downstairs.

First, I explored my room with my hands, taking in the feel of the bedposts, and learning where everything was. The room was small and square, with a desk with a computer on it in one corner, and a bookshelf in another. An antique rocking chair was next to the window. The wood was smooth. They back of the chair was engraved with a spiral pattern, and the arms of the chair were curved and graceful. I felt the curtains at the window. They were lace, old and stiff. I traced the patterns carefully with my fingers. A flower pattern. The bed was up against the wall, and the dresser was beside it.

Then I started to unpack my belongings. I put my clothes in the dresser, and placed my books on audio and CDs on the shelf in the same order they had been in at my house in Phoenix, so I would still know where everything was. My small CD player went on top of the dresser.

After I did all of that, I just sat, and listened. The rain continued to pour down, and I liked the sound of it on the roof. The wind was loud – whistling, screaming, and whooshing around the house, and I knew that it would keep me up at night. Underneath those sounds, were the much softer sounds of the forest. Leaves rustled, birds sought shelter. I even heard the quiet footsteps of a larger animal wandering through the woods. I strained my ears to hear it, and tuned out the other sounds. The footsteps were firm yet delicate, like the feet making them were hard, but the animal was a light stepper. I listened even more closely. I heard the sound of dead leaves breaking beneath the feet, as if they were hooves. It wasn't like the sound of paws. I smiled slightly, enjoying the experience, and guessed that it was a deer.

"OH, _COME ON_!" Charlie shouted out of the blue, yelling at the players in whatever game he was watching. The sudden, loud sound scared me, and broke my concentration. I lost the sound of the deer's soft footfalls in the sound of the wind. I sighed, disappointed. But Charlie's outburst had broken his concentration on the game, and he remembered me. "Hey, Bells," he called, "I ordered pizza for dinner. That sound okay to you?"

I sighed again, still sad over loosing the deer's footsteps. "Yeah," I called back. "That sounds fine." I ran my fingers through my hair to see if I needed to brush it. I did, so I picked my brush up from where I had set it on the dresser. As I brushed the tangles out of my long hair, I recalled Charlie's words. _Welcome home. _I smiled, a little sadly. I liked a few things about Forks, but it definitely wasn't home yet. I was afraid that it would _never_ feel like home. I finished brushing my hair, and carefully walked down the stairs, toward the sound of the television, where I knew Charlie was. I pushed the thoughts out of my mind. _It doesn't matter if this isn't like home to you_, I told myself. _You came here to make_ Renee _happy_.

I sat down beside Charlie as we waited for the pizza to arrive. Charlie patted my shoulder when I sat. I smiled, a little more naturally. He clearly loved me, and wanted to make me happy here. _Maybe it won't be so hard to live here,_ I thought._ Maybe._


	2. Forks High

The next day, I woke up, and groaned. I wasn't a morning person to begin with, but that day I was in an especially bad mood. It was my first day at Forks High School. I had butterflies in my stomach from the second I woke up. I dressed more carefully than usual, which is interesting when you can't see what you're doing. I didn't want to have a wardrobe malfunction on my first day – I was already going to be in an uncomfortable position since I was not only a new student, but also blind. I took about three bites of my cereal, before I gave up on it. I was too nervous to eat.

Charlie drove me to school, and guided me to the front office, where a woman named Mrs. Cope gave me my schedule and a slip of paper that all of my teachers needed to sign. Charlie asked me if I wanted him to walk me to my first class, but the secretary informed him that she would call for one of my classmates to come show me the way. So Charlie left after wishing me good luck, and I waited for my helper to come.

Mrs. Cope didn't talk to me very much as I waited. She was embarrassed – after all, how does one make conversations with a blind girl? A lot of people don't talk to me because they are afraid of offending me. Once, I overheard a girl in my school in Phoenix say "Geez, it's not like I can ask her 'Hey, did you see what happened on _Grey's Anatomy _last night?' you know?" when pressed by her friends to talk to me. It's kind of funny – people expect me to burst into tears when they accidentally make a reference to seeing something. As long as people aren't cruel about it, I don't care.

I heard Mrs. Cope dial a phone number, and ask someone named Mr. Mason to send someone named Mike to the office. A few minutes later, I heard the office door open, and heard a young, male voice say, "Mrs. Cope? Mr. Mason said you wanted to see me?"

"Yes, Mike," Mrs. Cope replied, sounding relieved. "Would you please help Isabella get to your English class?"

I winced slightly at the use of my full name. "Bella," I corrected quietly, looking toward Mike's voice, so that he would know that I was talking to him. "Please, call me Bella."

I heard Mike's soft gasp of surprise. "Hey," he said, "I didn't see you there. Are you in my English class?" I nodded. "Cool," he sounded like he meant it. "Yeah, the school map is kinda confusing," he continued as he walked toward me. "I can never understand it either."

I stood, picking my cane up from where I had leaned it against the wall. Mike stopped dead. I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. He hadn't known that I was blind. That explained why he'd thought I needed his help because I couldn't understand the map. Now he knew, and he was trying – and failing – to play it cool. "So, uh," he began, his voice uncertain, "How do I... you know, do this?" he asked.

I tried to put him at ease by complimenting him. "At least you're brave enough to ask," I told him, smiling. "Most people just try to do it on their own, and mess up. Here," I held out my hand, and he took it. I placed my hand on his elbow. "Now just walk," I instructed. "But warn me if there's stairs, or a door, or something, okay?"

"Okay," Mike replied, and he sounded more confident. He led me forward, and held the office door open for me. We got to English class without a hitch.

Mike led me to an empty seat in the back of the room after Mr. Mason signed my slip, and the most embarrassing thing happened. I heard _every person_ in that classroom turn around in their seats to stare at me. I felt my face heat up, and I knew that I was blushing. I ducked my head, hoping that it would make them turn back around. It didn't. I didn't hear them move until Mr. Mason started teaching, and even then, I heard them glance back at me every now few minutes.

Mr. Mason lectured about _Jane Eyre_, which I practically knew by heart. Even if the subject matter had been new to me, I wouldn't have been able to concentrate – I could feel the gazes of my curious classmates, and it made me restless and uneasy. I shifted in my seat, and fidgeted until the bell rang.

A boy named Tyler walked me to my next class, which was Government. The teacher – Mr. Jefferson – told us that he had a sore throat, and didn't feel like yelling over everyone that day. Instead, he had us read a chapter in our books, and informed us that there would be a quiz over the chapter when we had finished reading it. The people around me sighed, muttered, and pulled out their books. I let myself enjoy not being stared at for a moment before I did something that made the class stare again. I pulled my reading machine out of my backpack, and set it on my desk.

To me, my reading machine was a Godsend. It was a Portset Reader, and it scanned the pages of a book, and read them back to me. I placed the book, turned to the appropriate page, face down on on the scanner, put the headphones over my ears, and hit the scan button. A few seconds later, a voice came over the headphones, reading the book to me. Underneath the sound of the reading voice, I could hear the rest of the class murmuring in surprise. I ignored them as best I could, and focused on what the chapter discussed. Mr. Jefferson gave me the quiz orally towards the end of the class. I aced it.

Two more class periods passed in roughly the same fashion – I entered each room, everyone stared and talked about me. Then it was time for lunch. I walked into the cafeteria with the help of a short, talkative girl named Jessica. Her voice came from a height near my shoulder.

While she was jabbering at me, I was counting steps. I did not want to be dependent upon someone for the entire school year, so I was learning how many steps it took to get from one classroom to another, and in what direction. Also, I was creating a sort of 3-D map of the school in my head, based on the shapes I was gathering by listening to sound waves bounce off the walls. I had learned the layout of my old school in Phoenix with that method, and that school had been exponentially larger that Forks High School. My ears were like bat ears, able to pick up the softest sounds, and capable of discerning something's shape by listening to the return sound waves.

I was also committing the sound of her footsteps to memory. Since I can't _see_ people, I have to identify them with my other senses. For example – Jessica's footsteps were light and springy, and she was wearing a vanilla-scented perfume. I learned the smell of her shampoo, too, which was lavender.

I followed Jessica to a table where we sat with a group of her friends. I recognized the voices of Mike and Tyler, and a most of the others, which I had heard in my different classes. After Jessica introduced me to everyone, I was able to place names with voices. The thin, nasal voice belonged to Lauren, the quiet, shy one belonged to Angela, the voice that was deeper than all the others was Ben's, and the medium-ranged, fast voice was Eric's.

I half-listened to their conversations while keeping one ear open for anything interesting going on in the rest of the cafeteria. After I listened for a few minutes, I noticed that there were no noises coming from one corner of the cafeteria. I cocked my head slightly, listening closer. I could barely make out five different people breathing, but no one spoke at first, and I couldn't hear them eating. When they did speak, what they said was very confusing.

It started out with a _thump_, and the squeal of a chair leg against the linoleum. Then a man's voice muttered "Sorry," in a tone that sounded resentful. But – despite the tone – the deep, bass voice was so beautiful that I almost gasped aloud.

"You weren't going to do anything," a girl's high, tinkling voice – also incredibly melodious – soothed. "I could see that."

I frowned slightly. See what? And what was the man not going to do?

"It helps a little if you think of them as people," the soprano voice continued. "Her name is Whitney. She has a baby sister she adores. Her mother invited Esme to that garden party, do you remember?"

"I know who she is," the man's voice growled back brusquely.

The girl sighed softly, and gave up. I heard her walk – almost silently – away. I was baffled. What had the girl been talking about? It would help _what_ to think of them as people? I had no idea, and I wanted more information, so I turned to my new friend, who seemed to know everything about everyone.

"Jessica?" I murmured, interrupting her telling me about the teachers at Forks High.

"Yeah?" she asked, sounding disgruntled, but curious.

" Across the cafeteria, there's five people sitting together, but they aren't talking, and I'm pretty sure they aren't eating, either. Who are they?" I said, and waited on bated breath for her answer.

Jessica was silent for a second. Then she asked, "How do you know all that?" She sounded stunned.

I smiled slightly, hiding my impatience. "My hearing is very good," I replied evasively.

I heard her hair swish as she shook her head. "Wow. Yeah, those are the Cullens and the Hales. There's three boys, and two girls. The guy's names are Emmett, Jasper, and Edward. The girls are Rosalie and Alice."

I pondered the names for a moment. They were old-fashioned, different. But – even though I had only heard a small bit of their conversation – their names seemed to fit them. They sounded older, more mature that your average high school student.

Jessica continued, happy to be gossiping again. "They were all adopted by Dr. Cullen and his wife. Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie are seniors, and Edward and Alice are juniors. Rosalie and Jasper Hale are twins, and they're the only two that are actually related. But they're all _together!_ Alice and Jasper, and Emmett and Rosalie, and they all _live_ together!"

I was still listening to the to the Cullens and Hales, hoping to hear something else. I was not disappointed.

A male voice I hadn't heard before said, very quietly, "Jessica Stanley is giving the new Swan girl all the dirty laundry on the Cullen clan." His voice was amused, and was just as beautiful as his sibling's voices. He paused for a moment, as if expecting a reply, then said, "Rather unimaginative actually. Just the barest hint of a scandal. Not an ounce of horror. I'm a little disappointed."

I frowned slightly. He had said the second sentence as though someone had asked about the gossip Jessica was dishing out. But no one else had spoken. And, second of all, how did he hear what Jessica was talking about? Were his ears as sensitive as mine? And why would he be disappointed at the lack of horror in Jessica's words? So many questions, and not nearly enough answers.

Jessica still continued. "Edward's the only one that's single, but don't get your hopes up. He may be gorgeous, but he doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him." She sniffed.

I repressed a smile with difficulty. Edward had obviously turned her down, and she was still sore over it. Jessica didn't say anything else about the Cullens, so I assumed that she didn't know anything else. Jessica struck me as the type of girl who would tell anything and everything, just to have a chance to talk.

Though I continued to listen to the Cullens for the remainder of lunch, the only other time one of them spoke, was when another girl said, in a perfect voice, "Shall we?" After that, they all left.

Angela helped me get to the class we had next – Biology – and was leading me toward the teacher's desk so I could get my slip signed when I heard the strangest thing. We were walking past one of the lab tables, when I heard someone _hiss_. I was suddenly terrified, and I had no idea why. I turned my head quickly toward the sound, and could've sworn that I felt someone glaring at me. Not staring – I had gotten used to that. _Glaring_. I turned away quickly, and instinctively sped up. But – being blind – I tripped over something – I didn't know what – and fell forward. I gasped, and threw my hands out in front of myself, acting on instinct to try and break my fall. My hands connected with the hard edge of one of the lab tables. Everyone gasped, and asked me if I was okay, as Angela helped me back up. I was shaking – not from the fall, but from that fear-inspiring sound. I don't know if seeing who had made the noise would have helped, but it was like being in a dark place, where you can't see a thing, but having every instinct in your body tell you that there's something menacing lurking in the dark. An unseen enemy, one you have to run from.

Mr. Banner – the Biology teacher – signed my slip, and sent me to a desk. As Angela helped me sit down, I realized, with another jolt of panic, that I was sitting next to the person who had hissed at me. I heard the chair next to me move, and the person in it turn away. I could feel the tension radiating from whoever it was. I took a shaky breath, trying to calm myself. The most heavenly scent floated through my nose. It was sweeter that anything else I could've possibly imagined. It wasn't like cologne – I suspected that it was the natural smell of the person that was sitting beside me. The one I was unreasonably afraid of. The person was also radiating coolness, the same way a human body throws off heat. Then, to my horror, the person stopped breathing. I panicked for a minute – had whoever it was _died _right there? I hadn't heard anyone fall out of a chair and hit the floor. I heard the soft whisper of the person's clothes as he fidgeted a second later, so I didn't think the person was dead. But after I sat down, the person I was siting next to stopped breathing, and didn't take another breath until the bell rang almost an hour later, when he dashed – too quickly, too quietly – out of the room like it was on fire.

Mike helped me to gym, the last period of the day, where I would sit on the bleachers and listen to the other people play whatever sports for the entire year. After I sat down, Mike started to walk away, but I called him back.

"Hey, Mike," I began, "who did I sit next to in Biology?"

Mike seemed unwilling to answer, but he did anyway. "That was Edward Cullen."


	3. Hidden Meanings

After gym, Mike walked me back to the office so I could turn my signed slip in. I was tired, and still shaken by Edward Cullen's hostility, and I wanted to be alone. I convinced Mike to leave me by the office door, that I didn't need him to walk me in. "I can handle it," I assured him.

He still didn't leave. "Do you need a ride home?" he asked hopefully.

Irritation flared up momentarily. Mike was persistent. Annoyingly so. I hid my feelings, and answered, as calmly as I could, "Thanks, but my dad's going to come get me. He said he'd pick me up in the office."

"Okay," he muttered, discouraged, and trudged off in the direction of the parking lot.

I felt my lips twitch up at the corners at his tone as I entered the office. It was only my first day at Forks High, and I already had an admirer. Things here were _definitely_ different from Phoenix.

But as soon as the office door closed behind me, my good mood disappeared. The small, warm room was filled with a smell so amazing, that it could only belong to one person. I recognized that smell. I had spent a tense hour sitting beside it in Biology. Edward Cullen. He was talking to Mrs. Cope, asking if there was any way to switch his Biology class to another time. Now that I heard his voice, I remembered that I had heard it in lunch. He had been the one to inform his family that Jessica had been gossiping about them, and to remark that said gossip was disappointing. I was struck once again by the perfection of his voice. But then I frowned. Why did he want to switch classes? It couldn't have anything to do with me, could it? His reaction had to be about something else – he didn't even _know_ me! Surely I hadn't offended him so quickly?

But just as I was telling myself how impossible it was for Edward Cullen to hate me so much, the office door opened again, letting in a wind that stirred the papers on Mrs. Cope's desk, and swirled my hair around my face. Edward cut off in mid-sentence, and I heard him stop breathing again. I heard him turn slowly, and I felt his eyes burning into me. I didn't have to see him to know that his look was not a friendly one. I could feel the anger, no, the _fury_ in it. He did not speak, but his silence said more than words ever could. It spoke to the primal, instinct controlled part of my mind. _I am dangerous_, it said. _Run. Run, but you won't get far. I am faster. I am stronger. You cannot fight me_. I could have sworn that the temperature in the room dropped by about ten degrees. My eyes widened, my heart sped up. The hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end.

Then the force of Edward's stare was removed, and he was talking to Mrs. Cope again. "Never mind, then," he said quickly. His voice was still smooth on the surface, but I had enough practice at relying on voices for insight into emotion that I was able to hear the soft, well-hidden edge of impatience – almost desperation – for the conversation to be over. "I can see that it's impossible. Thank you so much for your help." Then he turned and brushed past me with fast, near-silent footsteps, and slipped out the door. I walked toward the front desk, my hand clutched tightly around the sheet of paper I was supposed to turn in. I laid it wordlessly in front of Mrs. Cope.

"How did your first day go, dear?" she asked.

I shrugged noncommittally, not trusting my voice.

"Are you alright? You look a little pale," Mrs. Cope asked, sounding concerned.

I _felt_ a little pale. I did my best to control my voice. "I'm just tired," I told her. I was proud of how even my voice sounded – much calmer than I actually felt. I moved to where I remembered the chairs were, and sank down into one. My hands were still shaking slightly.

Mrs. Cope was not convinced. "Are you sure you're all right?" she asked again. "I could call the nurse if you need me to," she offered.

I shook my head. "I'm fine," I said firmly. I was getting more in control of myself by the second.

"Well," Mrs. Cope sounded dubious, "be sure to get a good night's sleep."

"I will," I replied. There was no use in telling her that the wind was way too loud for me to sleep.

Mrs. Cope went back to her paperwork, and I thought about Edward Cullen while I waited for Charlie to come pick me up. There was a lot to think about. He was mysterious, had a beautiful voice and smell, and was – according to Jessica – gorgeous. Then there were the things I was not so sure about. I suspected that he had sensitive ears – how else had he been able to hear Jessica's words from across a noisy cafeteria – that his family was a very tight-knit group, and didn't let others into their lives. After all, Jessica's knowledge on the family had been limited, and she hadn't sounded pleased by that fact. And the family had sat alone, only with themselves, no friends, and had been silent for most of the time. Even when they did talk, it was in voices so low that I'd had to strain to hear them, like they hadn't wanted anyone to overhear, and their conversation had been extremely confusing. There was something...different about all of them, and I wanted to find out what it was.

A few minutes later, Charlie drove up. He helped me into the cruiser, and asked me how my day went. I lied, and said it had been fine. We made slightly strained small talk until we got home. Then Charlie told me that he had to go back to the station, would I mind staying here, or did I want to go with him, and stay until quitting time? The last thing I wanted to do was sit in the police station, bored, and wait for Charlie to finish working. Instead, I decided to stay at the house and do my homework. I also really wanted to be alone for a while. So, I did my homework – Trig, English, and Spanish – and tried to think some more about the Cullens, but my thoughts just went around in answerless circles. It gave me a headache. So I set about doing something else I needed to do.

Another gadget for the blind that I had was a Braille machine. I worked almost like a type writer, but instead of print, it wrote in Braille. I typed out labels for appliances around the house – oven, microwave, sink, and so on. Then I went around the house and attached the labels to the appropriate appliance, so I could be more comfortable when walking around the house. I also learned my house's layout, and tested myself on it, walking around to the different rooms. When I was satisfied with my maneuvering capability, I returned to my room, and sat on my bed, out of things to do.

I remembered hearing the deer the night before, and decided to listen to the forest again. I breathed deeply, and focused my hearing on the sounds of the woods. The _drip, drip, drip_ of the rain drops... the soft _shhhhh_ing noise of the leaves in the wind... the louder cracking of the branches colliding... the soft pattering footsteps of rodents in the underbrush... the_ wap, wap, wap_ of a bird's wings... and two sets of running feet. My ears perked up, and I focused on the sound. They were light, almost soundless, and so fast that the individual taps of feet on the forest floor almost made a continuous sound. They were also coming towards my house. My heart quickened, my hands clenched into fists on my quilt. The only people with footsteps like that were the Cullens.

Why were they running through the woods to my house? I had no idea, but I remembered Edward's hostility, and a jolt of fear tightened my stomach. Did his family hate me for some unknown reason, too?

The footsteps slowed, and stopped just at the edge of the trees bordering Charlie's front lawn. There was a moment of silence – the small animals I had heard earlier were gone – then a man with a barely noticeable English accent spoke. "This is the one that Edward reacted so strongly to?" I immediately knew that the speaker was one of the mysterious Cullens, though his voice was unfamiliar. His voice was too perfect, too beautiful, to belong to anyone _besides_ one of the Cullens. Right after I made the connection, I grasped the meaning in his words. He could see me! They were watching me from the cover of the trees. I held very still, afraid that, if I moved, the two Cullens would realize that I knew they were there. Then they might leave. I didn't want that – I wanted to hear more.

I did. "Yes," answered the high, tinkling voice I had heard in the cafeteria replied. "That's her. Bella Swan."

The man sighed. "I'm not sure how to proceed," he admitted. "We haven't dealt with a situation quite like this before. Before you and Jasper came to us, Emmett found two like this, but he was not able to resist. Had the same thing happened here, obviously, we would leave, but since Edward _was_ strong enough, and since he has decided to leave us for a few days... I don't know what would be best. Do you see any trouble ahead?"

There was a short silence. I listened, incredulous.

After a minute, the soprano voice answered the man's question. "No..." her voice was slow and uncertain, "but it really depends on what Edward chooses when he comes back. Until then, I won't be able to see much. For now, we're safe if we want to stay, and wait for Edward, which is what I would suggest, Carlisle. Edward wouldn't like it if we left because of him, especially when there _is_ a chance that he could control himself. He would feel weak."

Carlisle answered carefully. "I certainly don't want that, but I wasn't talking about trouble for _us_, Alice. By staying, we are putting Bella's life in danger. I don't want her hurt."

I blinked, shocked. Carlisle was _worried _about me! I hadn't been expecting that – it made me feel guilty for assuming the worst about him and his family. Maybe they weren't so bad after all.

Alice was quiet again, then said, "No, I don't see any trouble for her either, but remember, I can only see up until Edward comes back. I won't see anything else until he makes his decision. But I still suggest waiting for Edward."

Carlisle deliberated for a moment. "You usually know what's best," he finally said, "We'll stay, and wait for Edward."

After that, they ran away. The forest slowly started to come back to life – the animals came out of hiding. I didn't move from where I was sitting on my bed. I could no longer deny that I was the cause behind Edward's anger – Alice and Carlisle's conversation had proved that I was. Apparently, I had done something so offensive that Edward had left, and now his family was considering what to do. And, somehow, their decision could kill me, if Carlisle was to be believed. Everything depended on how "strong" Edward was. If he was able to "resist". According to Carlisle and Alice, Edward would decide if his family stayed of moved away, which, in turn, would decide _my_ fate.

I was more confused than ever. Edward had to be "strong" enough to do what? He had to "resist" what? How was I a part of it? And that was the second time Alice had spoken of "seeing" something. Everything Carlisle, Alice, and Edward said meant something – something they didn't want the outside world to know. I had a feeling that if I knew what it was, I would be able to understand their conversations perfectly. It all revolved around what the Cullens were hiding.

The sound of Charlie's cruiser pulling into the driveway momentarily interrupted my thoughts. The Cullens were different but, after hearing Carlisle's concern for me, I didn't think they were bad. That thought suddenly made me look at Edward's leaving in a different light. Carlisle had spoken in a way that made me think that Edward had almost done something when he had been near me – what if Edward had left to_ keep_ from doing it? That would certainly explain his rush to get away from me. But, as I went downstairs to greet Charlie, I still felt a little foreboding. The Cullens were obviously a part of something big, and something dangerous. And I had been sucked right into the middle of it.


	4. Careful

Edward didn't come back to school that week – I listened for his voice and tried to find his smell in the air every day. None of the Cullens watched me from the woods. Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett didn't say a word at lunch. I didn't learn anything else about the reclusive family. All in all, a uneventful, almost boring week.

On the bright side, I did finally memorize the layout of the school – much to the disappointment of Tyler, Eric, and Mike, I could now walk to each of my classes without needing help. People didn't stare at me as much, though they still whispered when I used my Portset reading machine. My novelty was finally – slowly – wearing off. I learned more about my new friends. I genuinely liked Angela – she was a good person. Jessica was nice, too, but she was a chatterbox, and I think she mostly liked me because I was – for some reason – popular. Lauren, on the other hand, I did _not_ like, and neither did she keep her dislike of me a secret. Her snide remarks and condescending tone made it clear that she did not appreciate me intruding on her scene. But at least I survived the first week. The weekend was uneventful, too. I did homework, and Charlie fished. We set up my laptop, which had Braille keys and a program that read back what I typed so I could turn in my homework in print instead of Braille.

Monday went normally at first – English was repetitive, Trigonometry was hard, and Spanish and history were interesting, if a little dull. Then lunch came around. I walked in to the cafeteria with my friends, one corner of my mind counting steps. Out of habit, I took a deep breath, sifting through the countless scents, looking for one in particular... and, to my surprise, I found it. I sniffed lightly again, just to be sure, and there it was. Edward's scent, mixed in with the other heavenly smells of his siblings. And then, as if I needed any other conformation, I felt a familiar gaze settle on my face. My cheeks burned – I wasn't sure why; I had nothing to be embarrassed about – and I sped up slightly.

I didn't get anything to eat – I was too nervous. I sat down at my friends' usual table, but I couldn't relax. Edward's stare, though unhostile for the moment, made me fidget. Jessica noticed his stare, too.

I heard the swish of her hair and the rustle of her clothes as she leaned toward me. "Edward Cullen is staring at you," she whispered, and giggled.

_I know_, I thought. I could feel it. Out loud I asked, taking advantage of Jessica's eyes, "He doesn't look angry, does he?"

Jessica's hair sighed against her shoulders as she turned to look. "No," she replied, confused. "Should he?"

That was a hard question to answer. First of all, I wasn't sure if I knew the answer. Secondly, I was acutely aware of the fact that Edward – and his family – could hear every word that Jessica and I said. I listened to their soft breathing for a split second. They were so quiet – surely they were listening. I settled for a noncommittal answer – that was also true. "I don't know," I murmured.

I walked silently to Biology with Angela, fearing another terrifying class period spent waiting for Edward to breathe. Angela was quiet, too. She sensed that I was not in the mood for talking. I sat at my table, and waited, as if for a firing squad. I listened, hard, for Edward's quiet footsteps, yet also dreading the sound. I knew it when he entered my hearing range. I recognized the soft, muted taps of his strangely quiet feet. I listened to the sound waves bouncing off the walls, trying to pinpoint his location. I could listen to those sound waves, and, by listening to the sounds they made on the walls, tell what the walls were made of. There was plaster on one side of him, and metal – probably lockers – on his other side. After he took two more steps, he passed glass – a window. I recognized the hallway now – he would turn one more corner and be in the hallway that led to the Biology class.

My breathing quickened. My heart accelerated. Adrenalin hummed through my body as I waited for Edward to enter the room. I continued to listen to his footsteps. He turned the corner... walked down the hall... crossed the threshold of the classroom... sat down beside me.

I was expecting him to hiss at me again, give me another one of his murderous glares, or one of his stony silences. So I was totally unprepared for the polite, relaxed voice that came from beside me.

"Hello," he said softly, his voice friendly.

This was so far from what I had been expecting that I forgot to be afraid. I turned toward his voice, stunned.

He continued. "My name is Edward Cullen. I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be Bella Swan."

It took me a second to gather my whits, scattered as they were by Edward's unpredicted nice behavior. "Y-yes," I stammered. "I – it's nice to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, too," he replied.

I was blinking at him, still throughly bewildered, when I heard him chuckle. "What?" I asked.

"I'm sorry. You just look so shocked – like you can't believe I'm talking to you," Edward told me, amusement obvious in his voice.

"I can't," I replied frankly. "Not after... the last time we met."

"Ah," he murmured, suddenly serious. "Of course. I'm... sorry. You didn't deserve that." His voice was wary, cautious and filled with regret. I started a little at his tone.

"Well, then maybe we should start over," I suggested cautiously.

Edward didn't speak for a moment – long enough that I started to worry that I had offended him. I was about to say something to try to fix the situation when he spoke again.

"I... I think I would like that very much," he said softly.

Happy, I couldn't help but grin at Edward, and he laughed again. I felt the strangest sensation at the sound; a squeezing in my chest – tight, but not unpleasant. It surprised me. And, in a way, frightened me. I felt too happy at the idea of starting fresh with Edward. I reminded myself that he was more than what he seemed to be, but I found it hard to care about that as much as I had earlier. Instead of being afraid of Edward's secret, I found myself intensely curious. But I could still see the danger in getting to close to Edward – I shook off the unsettling feelings, and told myself to get a grip.

Edward didn't speak again during the class, and every now and then I heard him hold his breath for an impossible amount of time. When the bell rang, he darted out of class just like he had a week ago. I sat still for a minute, surprised again, before I went to put my Biology book in my locker before Gym.

I walked through the halls confidently – I knew them well by then. But when I reached the hall where my locker was, someone bumped into me. I staggered a few steps sideways, and, when I had regained my balance, I realized that I had been thrown off course. The bell rang again, calling the students into the classrooms, and I was left alone. I frowned, and tried to remember how much further I needed to go. I guessed, and walked forward, but when I reached out and felt the locker I had stopped in front of, I knew it was not mine. This particular locker had a lock on it – the lock on my locker had been removed in order to accommodate my blindness.

I was thinking about how to find my locker when I heard someone coming down the hall. She – I knew it was a she by the way her high heels clacked against the tile floor – paused next to me, and I caught a whiff of her perfume. _Curious_ by Brittany Spears. I sighed. The only person in Forks High who wore _Curious_ was Lauren, and she was the last person I wanted to ask for help. But, desperate times call for desperate measures, so I swallowed my pride, and asked "Lauren? Could you tell me where my locker is? It's number forty-two."

"Sure," she replied, a little coolly, but, since it was Lauren, I didn't detect anything out of the ordinary – Lauren always sounded cool. "It's two lockers to the left of where you are."

"Thanks," I said, trying to be as polite as possible.

"No problem," she replied, and clacked her way down the hall.

I followed Lauren's direction, and moved my hand across two more lockers. I reached down to find the latch... and my fingers encountered a lock. It was the wrong locker again. Lauren had played a cruel joke on the blind girl. I hadn't been treated like that since elementary school. It was so unexpected here, in a high school, where people were supposed to be more mature than that.

Blood rushed up into my face. I was humiliated. Humiliated and hurt. And angry. Most unfortunately, I cry when I get angry, so moisture filled up my eyes. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down, but, to my embarrassment, it hitched and caught in my throat. I became even more angry with myself – _why was I so upset?!_ I'd been through much worse – and the extra anger added more tears to my eyes. Now those embarrassing tears spilled over my cheeks.

Of course, he chose that exact moment, when I looked and felt my worst, to show up.

"I'm so sorry, Bella," Edward said softly and fiercely. "That was horrible of her – I'm so sorry." He place a light hand on my shoulder.

A fresh blush heated my face – there I was, standing in the hall, crying in front of a locker like an idiot. I shook my head, and wiped the stupid tears from my face. "Don't be," I said gruffly, "You have nothing to be sorry for. I'm just being stupid – I'm fi-"

Edward cut me off. "You're upset. I am sorry for that. And you are not being stupid – you have every right to be upset. For her to do something like that -" He stopped, and I heard him grind his teeth together in fury.

I was back in control of myself. His anger startled me – I tried to soothe him. "I've had a while to get used to being blind," I said quietly, with a small smile at him. "That just caught me by surprise."

Edward was quiet for a moment. Then he asked gently, "You said you'd had a while to get used to being blind. When did you loose your eyesight?"

I shrugged. "I was born blind." I was secretly pleased – he wasn't afraid to talk to me about my not being able to see. Most people – my mother included – shied away from it. "It's easier that way, I suppose," I continued quietly. "I've never known anything else, not like some people who go blind later in life." I smiled up at him. "It's hard to miss what you've never had."

Suddenly, I remembered the Biology book I still had tucked under my arm. My smile widened into a grin. Edward noticed. "What's so funny?" he demanded.

I held my book up. "I never did get to put this away," I explained.

"Oh," he said, and I felt his fingers – icy cold – wrap around the hand I still had resting against the lockers. "Here." He started to move my hand.

"No," I said swiftly, my voice a little harder. Edward paused, surprised. I softened my tone. "Please, just tell me where it is. I -" I frowned. "I don't... like feeling helpless."

"I understand," he said quietly, but there was a wry edge to his voice. "Your locker is four to your right."

I felt briefly irritated – Lauren had told me that it was to my left. Which reminded me. "How did you know that I needed help finding my locker in the first place?" I asked, my curiosity flaring to life.

Edward sighed, and replied in a tight voice. "Lauren and I have class together this period. I heard her laughing about it with her friends."

"Oh," I said. I was a little embarrassed again – I hadn't been expecting such a normal answer. I slid my hand to the right, counting the lockers. When I reached the fourth one, I opened it, and tossed my Biology book in.

"What class do you have?" Edward asked after I shut my locker. "I'll walk you to it."

"Oh," I said, surprised by his offer. "I have Gym, but you don't have to -"

He cut me of again. "Just look at this as me trying to make up for Lauren." And then he started walking down the hall, assuming that I would follow. His attitude irked me, but I walked after him with a sigh. As we walked, I felt him looking at me again, but before I could ask him to stop, rain began to pelt the school roof. I cocked my head, listening to it, and sighed deeply. "What?" Edward asked. He sounded strangely frustrated for some reason.

"Rain," I replied, my voice glum.

"You don't like it?" he asked, sounding oddly curious, as if my answer was of vital importance.

I made a face. "Not really," I answered.

"Hmm... I wonder, then, why did you move here?" he inquired.

His straightforward questions made me answer without even thinking about it. "My mom got remarried, and her husband, Phil, plays Minor League baseball, so he travels around a lot," my voice started to harden. "And, my condition being what it is, she couldn't go with him. It made her unhappy. So I came here."

Edward was silent for a moment. Then he asked, "And you are angry with her?" I couldn't blame him for asking – I did sound mad.

I shook my head, my anger fading and turning into sadness. "No, I'm not angry with her. I'm angry with myself." When I realized what I had just said, I clamped my mouth shut. I had never, _ever_, talked about this to anyone, and now I had just told this boy I hardly knew. What was wrong with me?

"With yourself? Why?" he asked. He sounded, if possible, even more curious, but not in the way that Jessica was sometimes curious, like she was trying to get a good story to pass along. Edward sounded like the answers really mattered.

Again, I just blurted out the answer. "My mom is a very good person. A little scattered minded, maybe, but still good. She deserves to have a care-free life, spent traveling with Phil. Not chained in place by me. When she would talk on the phone with Phil, she would sound so sad that she couldn't be with him. It made me feel like I was robbing her."

Edward's reply was quick in coming. "But now you're unhappy."

I smiled up at him – I randomly noticed that he was very tall; his voice came from a ways above me. "It's not so bad. Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Besides," I pointed out, "I didn't come here to make myself happy."

We had reached the gym by then. I could here the running feet and the sounds of a basketball being dribbled up and down the court.

Edward stopped, and laid a hand on my arm to stop me too. "Your mother is a good person," he said, "but you are as well. I hope you can be happy." Then he turned and walked away.

I pushed the gym door oped, trembling. I had a feeling that I knew what would make me happy. Or, rather _who_. Edward's kindness had made it utterly impossible to see him in a bad light. In fact, I was seeing him an incredibly good light. _Be careful_, a small, ever shrinking part of my mind told me, alarmed by the feelings I was starting to develop for Edward Cullen. I wasn't sure that I could follow it's advice.


	5. Trust Me

Disclaimer: Still don't own Twilight. You already knew that. You also know who does.

When I woke up the next morning, the air was different. It was never humid in Washington, but that day, the air was sharper, pouring into my lungs like cold water. I breathed deeply, appreciating the new bite in it. Before I could contemplate this further, Charlie banged on my door.

"Be sure to dress warm today, Bells. It snowed last night," he said, and walked loudly back downstairs.

I sighed. I wasn't fond of the cold; actually, I hated it. And snow would make the already hard task of staying on my feet even harder. Today was going to be rough. Then I remembered whom I would be sitting next to in Biology that day, and my outlook brightened considerably. Which was very stupid. Edward Cullen was light years out of my league. Not that I could make myself care about that – it was too late.

When I was dressed and ready for school, Charlie and I walked out the front door. Charlie paused there, making an annoyed sound in the back of his throat. "What?" I asked.

"Yesterday's rain froze," he grunted. "Roads are gonna be a mess today."

He helped me walk carefully to his cruiser, supporting me when I slipped on the icy driveway. Charlie cautiously drove me to school, and we got there with out any trouble. I got out of the car, refusing Charlie's offer to help me inside. I crossed my arms across my chest and ducked my head, trying to ward off the cold. I walked gingerly, placing each foot on the ground with the utmost care as I counted my steps. But I had taken only about ten steps when a shrill, metallic sound pierced my ears. It was loud, painfully so, and coming toward me. My head snapped up, whipping around until I was facing that alarming sound. As my head moved, a jolt of recognition made my stomach lurch. Having grown up in a big city, I had seen – or rather heard – several car accidents. I just barely had time to recognize the sound of locked brakes when another sound caught my attention. Light, almost imperceptible running feet. A familiar, heavenly scent filled my nose... then he hit me, hard, knocking me backwards. I slammed into the asphalt of the school's parking lot, smacking my head on the hard surface. My breath was also knocked out of me, but that was because Edward had landed on top of me. Before I could make any sense of what had just happened, there was a grating crunch, and more squealing that was, again, heading right for me. Edward growled a curse, then moved. He shifted to the side so that he was behind me, and I heard his hands rush through the air as he threw them out protectively in front of me. A split second later, the out of control car hit his outstretched hands with a chilling groan of protesting metal.

Then the car stopped, and all was quiet for a moment. I could hear Edward's slightly unsteady breathing in my ear, feel it on the back of my neck. It was cold, just like his skin, and made me shiver. The shiver broke my paralysis, and I said, in a choked whisper, "How did you do that?" I had an idea of what had happened, based on what I had heard. The car had been coming right at me, would have hit me if Edward hadn't run impossibly fast and saved me. Then, when the car had hit another car and would've hit me _again_, Edward had put his hands out and stopped the car. _Stopped the car with his bare hands._ This freaked even me – who already knew that the Cullens weren't human – out.

The crowd of students and teachers exploded into action, screaming and shouting instructions. A lot of people called 911, and others shouted questions.

"Bella," Edward's voice was low, relieved yet frantic in my ear. "are you alright?"

I tried to sit up, but found that Edward was holding me to his side with cold, strong arms. I lightly touched the arm he had wrapped around my waist. His skin was ice cold to the touch, and incredibly smooth. "Let me up," I whispered. My voice shook, embarrassing me.

Edward laughed – one strained chuckle – and replied, "I don't think so. You hit your head pretty hard."

"I know," I said, my voice growing stronger. I could feel my head throbbing painfully. I wasn't afraid anymore – Edward's presence made fear impossible – and was now extremely curious. "How did you get here so quickly?" I demanded.

Edward took his arm away from my waist, and I took that as a sign that I was allowed to sit up now. I did so, ignoring my head when it throbbed again. "What are you talking about?" he asked innocently. "I was standing right behind you."

His voice was too innocent; I didn't believe him for a second. I felt the corners of my lips twitch up. "No you weren't," I said, "You ran here and pulled me out of the way."

"There wasn't enough time – that's impossible," Edward snapped impatiently.

My smile became a grin. "I know it's impossible. That doesn't mean you didn't do it."

Edward was silent. "What are you saying?" he asked after a moment.

My smile faded a little, and, though my voice still had a little humor in it, my reply was as serious as can be. "Maybe _you_ should tell _me_," I suggested.

"Bella, I was standing with you, and I pulled you out of the way," Edward's voice was fierce and intense, trying to convince me.

My smile vanished completely, my reply was somber. "Is that what you want me to tell everyone?"

Edward hesitated. "Yes," he answered reluctantly. It almost sounded like a question.

I nodded, wincing when my sore head protested. "Then that's what I'll say," I promised firmly.

"Is it?" Edward asked, half sarcastic, his voice strained.

I looked toward his voice, trying to look him in the face. "Yes," I told him. Then, very cautiously, "I wouldn't want to...make things difficult. You can trust me."

Edward laughed harshly, disbelieving. The police had arrived, and were pulling the car away from us so that we could get up. I had to tell him something else quickly, before he could disappear like he so often did. "You'll see," I whispered, "You'll see that you can trust me." Then the paramedics loaded me onto a stretcher and into an ambulance. Luck was with me, though. Edward came, too.

Edward's Point of View

I rode with Bella in the ambulance, so I would be close at hand if she started babbling about how I had defied all logic and saved her under impossible circumstances. That was what I told myself, what I would tell my family later. It didn't have anything to do with the way Bella's brown eyes warmed when she smiled at me. It had nothing to do with her intriguing face, her silent mind. It wasn't because her eyes – so beautiful it was hard to believe they didn't work – could see through my pretenses, could see me for who – if not what – I really was. I did not stay with her because I was finding it very nearly impossible to stay _away_ from her. Or so I told myself. I was lying, of course. It had _everything _to do with her eyes, her kind, unselfish spirit, that unexplainable draw I felt toward her.

But I couldn't tell my family that – I was in enough trouble already. I had broken the rules, broken them beyond repair, and Bella had noticed. She had noticed a lot, for a blind person. I was impressed with the way she had memorized the hallways of the school, but, then again, a part of me could've done without her noticing the strange things about me and my family. Rosalie and Jasper already wanted to ...take care of the "problem" Bella presented in a way that made my skin crawl and my chest feel colder that it already was. But I couldn't deny that another part of me _wanted _her to know our secret, though it would surely make her run away from me. I wanted her to run, to be safe in a way that wasn't possible with me near her, as I wanted to be. But I wanted her to stay, too. More than I could even begin to express. When I had seen Tyler's van spin out of control, had seen where it was heading... My own head was a very uncomfortable place to be at the moment, what with the different desires warring against each other, bringing up images that I _did not_ want to see. Alice's visions of Bella either lying dead in my arms, or Bella with red eyes, snow white skin. A vampire. The chaos in my head was one of the reasons I wanted – almost needed – to be near Bella. She could almost make me forget what I was, and what might happen because of that. When I was with her, I could forget all that, focus on the moment, and be ...happy.

So that was how I found myself riding to the county hospital. I was anxious as well – I hadn't had time to be very gentle with Bella when I had pulled her out of the way of Tyler Crowley's van. I could still hear the crack of her head hitting the pavement. Wouldn't that be terrible – to try to save her life and end up giving her a concussion. Or worse. I repressed a shudder and moved on to other thoughts. Like how I was going to keep Rosalie from killing me when I got home.

I glanced back at Bella. Her face was scarlet with embarrassment as she fingered the neck brace the paramedics had put on her. I grinned at the sight. Bella had been appalled when they hadn't listened to her assurances that she was fine and had loaded her onto a gurney. I'd been expecting that – Bella didn't like being the focus of so much attention. While I was still smiling at the memory, Bella looked up, right into my face, like she really could see me. She went a new shade of red, but didn't look away. My smile faded slightly, turned wondering. How had she known that I was staring at her? Her glance flicked over to the paramedics, who were talking to the hospital over a radio. Then, as if she knew they weren't watching, she smiled at me, her eyes warming to the color of rich chocolate, and mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.

My smile vanished. _You can trust me_, Bella had said. I was starting to wonder if I had a choice.

I hurried away to find Carlisle as soon as we pulled up to the hospital. I needed to talk to him, to tell him what I had done. A few of the familiar nurses nodded hello to me as I walked swiftly down one of the halls to Carlisle's office. I hesitated outside his office door for a second, knowing that Carlisle had heard me coming. Sure enough, he thought, _Come in, Edward_. I did, and shut the door firmly behind me. Carlisle's eyes widened when he saw my strained expression. _What happened? Are you alright?_ he asked, standing.

"I'm fine," I replied tightly, "but we may have a problem." Quickly I told him about the accident, about how I had saved Bella – and risked exposure at the same time. "I couldn't just stand there and watch her die," I finished fiercely, sounding a little defensive. Carlisle nodded. _Of course not_, he reassured me. _You did the right thing. _Carlisle got up from his chair and walked around his desk to the door. He rested his hand on my shoulder for a moment as he passed me. _Let's go check up on Bella, _he suggested. _I'll leave it to you to talk to her about what she may have seen. Or heard, I suppose. Convince her that she's wrong, and tell us what you think later._

We ran into a nurse as we left Carlisle's office. "Here," she said, handing Carlisle a folder. "These are Isabella Swan's X-rays. She's in room twenty-two." The nurse walked away briskly, her mind on something else. On the wall was a light board for reading X-rays. Carlisle pinned the sheets of black plastic to it, and studied the pictures that were now visible. I looked too – I had studied medicine several times to help keep Carlisle up to date with medical information. Our eyebrows shot up simultaneously at what we saw. Bella had several healed contusions, as if she'd fallen a lot. Carlisle chuckled. _Good heavens, how many times did her mother drop her on her head as a child? _He thought humorously. Then he went back to business. _Everything I see here is old, long healed. Nothing recent. She must not have hit her head so hard after all._ He put the X-rays back in the folder and turned to me. "Shall we?" he asked, and we started toward Bella's room. Another nurse caught up to us and handed Carlisle Tyler's folder. He read it as he walked. _He's bleeding, Edward,_ he warned.

"I'll be fine," I whispered, my voice so low that no body had a chance of hearing it. Carlisle nodded. We paused outside the correct room. "Maybe I should go in first," I murmured. Carlisle raised his eyebrows slightly. _If you think that's best_, he thought.

I slipped quickly into the room, letting the door close softly behind me. Tyler – the left side of his face covered in several deep cuts from the broken glass of his van – was spouting apology after apology at Bella, thinking, _Crap! I almost_ killed _her! She's going to_ hate _me now! How the heck am I going to ask her out _now_!?_My lips twitched. I was enjoying the idea of Bella turning him down very much. But, despite his constant stream of talk, Bella wasn't paying any attention to Tyler. Instead, she was looking at me. Not just toward the door, but directly at me, as if she _knew_ that I was there. Knew, and was waiting for me. As soon as the door had shut behind me, a smile spread across her face. The same protective feeling that had flared in me when I had saved her life flared in me now, and I knew that I would do more than try to convince her that I hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. No, I would do much more than that, even if it killed me. I would drive her away from me. I would push her away, and I would never let her come too close again. I would not endanger her ever again. I would not be selfish and destroy her life for my own happiness. I would tear my own heart out in the process, but that was irrelevant. I would keep Bella safe, no matter the cost.

My heart ached at the thought, and my throat tightened. I had to clear it before I could speak. "How are you?" I asked, my voice still sounded rough.

Bella's face turned sour; her lower lip protruded slightly in a pout. "There's nothing wrong with me, but they still won't let me go," she complained, while Tyler fell silent except for the occasional mutter about how he was such an idiot. Finally, I thought wryly something we agree on.

To Bella, I said, in a voice carefully devoid of any affection. "Don't worry; I came to spring you."

Carlisle came in, right on cue. "Let's have a look at you then," he said. His voice was bright, cheerful, but his thoughts were worried, wondering at my unusual surliness. Usually, I was a perfect gentleman. But I was distracted from Carlisle's thought's when Bella started, and turned toward Carlisle with surprised recognition in her eyes. She quickly hid her emotions, but not before I could begin to wonder how she could have possible known Carlisle's voice. Surely she had never heard it before. I glanced at Carlisle – he had noticed, too. He shrugged minutely. _Let it go for now_, he advised, and started examining Bella's head. Bella winced. "Tender?" Carlisle asked.

Bella shrugged. "I've had worse," she said, clearly hoping that Carlisle wouldn't press the matter. I chuckled – trust Bella to downplay anything that brought attention to herself – and she glanced at me. She looked irritated. My good humor vanished. In a way, I hoped that she would stay mad at me – it would make staying away from her a little easier if she didn't want me around.

"Well," Carlisle said, "your father is in the waiting room – you can go home with him now. But come back if you feel dizzy."

Bella turned back to Carlisle, looking surprised. "Can't I go back to school?" she asked. Bella was trying to make everything seem normal. Again.

"Maybe you should take it easy today. Besides," Carlisle said with a smile, "most of the school seems to be in the waiting room."

Bella sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Oh, great," she muttered. "Wonderful."

Carlisle smiled again. "Unless you would like to stay?" he inquired innocently, knowing how Bella would react.

Her head snapped up and her eyes popped wide open. "No,no!" she cried, and hopped off the narrow hospital bed. But she landed wrong and stumbled. I automatically took half of a step forward and put out my hand to catch her, but Carlisle was closer, and steadied her first. Her face went crimson with embarrassment. "I'm fine," she mumbled. "Could someone hand me my cane?" Carlisle quickly handed her the slender white cane with a red tip that leaned up against the bedside table.

Carlisle glanced at me. _It's time, Edward. Convince her that nothing happened_, he thought, then turned back to Bella. "Why don't you let Edward walk you to the waiting room while I take a look at Tyler," he suggested casually, and busied himself with checking Tyler's many cuts.

I took a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for what I was about to do. I reached out and took Bella's arm, guiding her out the door and into the hallway. I was trying to figure out how I was going to bring the subject without making it seem like I was trying to bring it up. Bella saved me the trouble. She stopped and looked seriously up into my face with eerie accuracy. "We should probably talk," she said.

I took another deep breath, and answered with forced hostility. "About _what_, exactly?" I watched the surprise followed by hurt shoot across her face and almost abandoned my plan. But I didn't. I made myself remember that I as doing this to protect Bella.

She may have been intimidated, even hurt, but Bella was not cowed. She answered levelly, "What happened today when you saved my life."

I made my voice as cold and hard as possible. "And what do you think happened?" I flung the words at her.

Her chin lifted defiantly in response to my tone, the exact opposite of how any other human would have reacted. Her tone was still calm though, when she answered me. "You were on the other side of the parking lot. You ran to me before the van hit me, and you pulled me out of the way. And when the van was going to hit me again, you put out your hands and stopped it." Something like awe filled her face. She reached up and touched my hand, which was still resting on her other arm. "You stopped it with your bare hands," she breathed.

Her touch was so soft, so warm, so gentle. I snatched my hand away before I could think about it too much. If I did, I would forget why I was there. I put extra effort into making my voice icy and derisive, like I was questioning her sanity. "You think I stopped a moving van with my hands?"

Bella met my eyes levelly. "Yes."

I snorted. "What a story. No one will believe that, you know."

Bella looked genuinely surprised. "I already promised not to tell anyone, remember?"

I _had_ forgotten. "Either way, there's not much to tell. I was standing next to you, and I pulled you out of the way." I made my voice sound earnest. "Really. I _was_ standing with you."

Bella smiled slightly. "Which, loosely translated,means, 'You're right, but I just can't tell you that'." Her face softened. "I understand. You have an obligation to your family. I won't ask you to ignore that."

I was staring at her. How did she know _any_ of this? Was I _that_ readable?

"Well," Bella said lightly, "now that that's settled, let's go the the waiting room." She frowned slightly. "I bet Charlie's worried."

"Nothing is settled," I growled. I was very _un_settled at the moment.

Bella shook her head. "You were supposed to make me believe you, weren't you?" she murmured. "If it helps, I'll spread your version of the accident around school if -" she sighed, "_when_ people ask." She looked up at me. "I'm sorry I'm not gullible," Bella said. She actually sounded like she was, too. "I know it might cause problems. I _will _cooperate though." Her voice went hard toward the end of her little speech. Bella looked grim for some reason. I wished again that I could hear her mind!

"I really need to go now," she said with a sigh. Automatically, I took her arm again and led her to the waiting room, where her anxious father and half of the junior class converged on her.

I watched, trying not to show just how stunned I was. That girl never did what I expected, and she had a mind as quick as wildfire. I pinched the bridge of my nose between my thumb and index finger, and tried – very hard – to think of a way to explain this to my family.


	6. Does It Matter?

Disclaimer: I still don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer still does. Has anyone besides me noticed how tedious repeating that over and over can get?

Edward's point of view

I ended up omitting most of my conversation with Bella. It was enough to say that Bella still believed what I had done, but had promised to keep quiet about it. Most of my family already wanted to leave – if I had told them _everything_, including all the things Bella had guessed, they would have packed their bags and boarded the first flight out of Seattle.

Rosalie didn't believe for a second that Bella would keep her mouth closed. "Just wait," she had snarled. "When the right person asks her, she'll be dying to tell the real story." Jasper and Emmett shared her opinion, though Emmett didn't take the situation seriously enough to get angry over my flat refusal to leave, and Jasper would never leave Alice – who _did _trust Bella, even felt a strong affection for the girl she had never met. Carlisle, too, believed that Bella was sincere in her promise to keep the secret. "And even if she doesn't," he said, trying to placate a seething Rosalie, "who would believe her? We might have to be extra careful for a while, but we don't exactly fit the vampire stereo-type." Esme had sided with Carlisle, which hadn't really surprised me. Esme always believed the best of people. Besides, she saw that I didn't want to leave, and she didn't want me to be unhappy.

My family was, however, surprised at how vehemently I defended Bella. Esme's eyebrows shot up, as did Emmett's, Jasper's, Rosalie's, and Carlisle's. Only Alice looked calm, if a little smug, as Rosalie said, "Edward, I swear, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were falling in love with her," in a biting tone. This comment completely threw me off. _What? Falling in love with Bella? No. She was just intriguing, that was all._ But then I remembered her eyes, her smile... Distracted by these thoughts, my answer took too long in coming for Rosalie's taste. Her eyes went wide and round, her jaw dropped. "_No_," she whispered, as Jasper looked strangely at me as he detected the odd feelings I'd experienced when I'd remembered Bella. "_No!_" Rosalie shrieked now in shocked disbelief. "_Edward!_ _Come on!_ How could you be so _stupid!?_ A _human_, Edward? A _human?!_ Have you lost your mind!?" Esme gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth. Her thoughts were of a happier nature than the others'. _Oh! He's finally found someone!_ Jasper and Emmett's mouths hung open; even Carlisle, usually so unflappable, looked stunned.

I glared at them. "No," I said loudly, pushing the strange feelings away to be dealt with later. "I am not in love with Bella Swan." Esme's hands came down from her face – she was disappointed, but trying to hide it – and Emmett and Jasper looked hugely relieved.

_Yet_. That particular thought came from Alice, who had so far been unusually quiet.

I spun to face her. She was leaning up against the wall by the staircase, looking right at me. "What did you say?" I asked, shocked.

_I said, _yet_. You are not in love with her_ yet. _But you will be_, Alice's "voice" became very confident. _Soon, I think. Maybe you're already starting to_.

While I gaped at her and the others looked on curiously, Alice pulled up memories of her visions with a mental sigh of exasperation. A new one first – me, in my meadow ...and was someone with me? I couldn't tell; it was too hazy, not quite set in stone. Then the one I dreaded – Bella, with the same white skin as me, with red eyes. Then the other, the one I dreaded even more – Bella, drained and dead in my arms. _It will be one or the other, Edward_, Alice told me gravely, _which means that you will stay, in spite of your fear of what might happen. I only know of one reason why you would do that._ Then her face brightened. _Can I meet her?_

"No," I snarled. Bella was too involved with our world as it was. Association with more vampires would just make it worse. "And I'll prove you wrong," I continued furiously taking a step toward her. Jasper's lips curled up warningly – I ignored him. "I _will_ change the future. _Nothing_ is set in stone." I took a deep breath and turned toward Carlisle. "I'm going to stay away from her from now on. It's what's best – for us, _and_ for her."

Carlisle kept his face smooth as he nodded in agreement, but I could hear his thoughts, wondering if there wasn't _some_ truth to what Rosalie had said, what I had denied.

I shook my head fiercely. "I'm going to stay away from her," I repeated.

Alice gave a mental snort and shrugged away from the wall and went upstairs. But not without having the last word – _I give you a week before you crack. _

Bella's Point of View

The day after the accident, everybody wanted to get the first-hand account of what happened. I sighed to myself, and spread the story that I had rehearsed all night long – Edward had been standing next to me, and had pulled me out of the way. People remarked that they hadn't seen him there, but accepted my story easily enough.

All day long I looked forward to Biology and the time I would get to spend with Edward there. I looked forward to lunch, too, sure that the Cullens would be talking about what Edward had done. I was right. As soon as I sat down with Jessica and the rest of my friends – including an annoying Tyler – I felt a stare bore into me. But this stare was not Edward's; Edward's gaze had not been cold and hateful after my first day in Forks, and this one was. _Very_ cold. Icy. I shivered under it.

"Stop it, Rosalie," Edward snapped harshly. "She hasn't told anyone – she's kept her end of the bargain perfectly."

"Edward, I swear, if someone comes up to me and asks me where my fangs are," growled a fierce, unfamiliar female voice – Rosalie, I assumed, "so help me, I'll -"

"Even if Bella _did_ tell someone what really happened," Edward interrupted, sounding even more angry, "there is nothing in the story that would make the person she told think of vampires."

I heard the words, but I did not understand them for about three seconds. Then the shock hit me like a blow – I felt it in my bones. The blood drained completely from my face, leaving me dizzy. My stomach rolled. Vampires. _Vampires._ Oh, God.

I had no idea what my face looked like, but, however it looked, it was bad enough that Mike noticed. "Bella? Are you okay?" he asked, worried.

I needed to be alone. Needed to think. _Now_. Before my head exploded. I stood quickly. "I think I'm sick," I whispered, and started toward the bathroom. I would lock myself in a stall...

"Do you want me to come with you?" Angela called after me. I heard her chair scrape against the floor as she prepared to get up.

"No, no," I called back, trying to hold myself together. The bell rang overhead. "I'll be fine," I told her. "Go on to class," I urged as the student body got to its feet. I slipped into the ladies' room and entered the stall the furthest away from the bathroom door. I put the toilet lid down, and sat down, putting my elbows on my knees, and my head in my hands. I ignored the other girls who laughed and gossiped before the warning bell rang and they went to their classes.

Eventually, the school was quiet, except for the teacher's voices and the rasp of chalk on the chalkboards. A few students talked amongst themselves, and I heard the whisper of pens and pencils on paper as others took notes or did homework. I rubbed my closed eyes with the heels of my hands, trying to think.

Vampires. That wasn't quite what I had been expecting. I had been thinking more along the lines of something more scientific, like a bite from a radioactive spider or something. Not something out of a myth, a fairy tale. I thought again of what I knew about the Cullens, going over every detail. Their speed, their almost-silent way of moving, the way Edward acted – as courteous as a Jane Austen character, with a – a _style_ of speaking that didn't fit in a high school. How he sometimes stopped breathing for long periods of time. And Carlisle had spoken about Edward having to resist something. If he was having to resist my blood, that would explain his violent reaction when he first saw me, and the way he seemed to pull away from me, just when I thought I was getting close. Of course, vampirism was a very good thing to keep a secret about. I could definitely understand that – if word got out about _that_, people would flock to them, everyone from reporters to scientists, vampire novel fans to terrified people wielding stakes.

_My_ reaction had not been as calm as I would have liked. I guess I hadn't been expecting to find out that way, by eavesdropping. I'd imagined that I would finally convince Edward that I could be trusted, and that he would tell me everything. Because I had been _sure_ – and now I knew for certain – that, despite his denial of being anything but normal, he wasn't human. A human can't stop a skidding van with his bare hands. And Edward had done just that.

Either way, the fact was that now I knew. The issue had changed – I was no longer trying to find out what he was. Now, I had to decide what I was going to do about it. I took a deep breath. What were my options? I could shut him completely out of my life, which was probably more healthy for me, or I could do nothing, which would make me happy. I knew the answer to that as soon as I could ask the question. I wouldn't do anything to make Edward leave. Ever. I was too far gone. I knew what I was risking – my life – and I knew that any decision I made I would stick by. So, even though I still knew the answer, I asked myself again. Did it matter to me that Edward wasn't human – that he was a vampire? Again, the answer came immediately. No. No, I did not care. It didn't matter what he was. I loved him. I would deal with his being a vampire, and all that would entail. Because I loved him. No, his humanity didn't matter – _nothing_ else mattered. I had made my choice. And I chose him.

As soon as I finished that thought, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. I started – I hadn't noticed the passing time. Chatter filled the air as people filled the halls. I stood quickly and made my way toward the gym. I was calm, filled with the firm peace that came from having made up my mind. While my classmates played basketball in P.E., I was able to listen to _Sense and Sensibility_ on audio and actually concentrate on the words – something I had not been able to do in a while. After P.E., I wandered over to the picnic tabled outside the school, the spot where I usually stayed while I was waiting for Charlie to come pick me up. As I waited, I heard soft, almost inaudible footsteps coming up behind me. Hope rocketed through me for a second, then came crashing down when I realized that the footsteps didn't belong to Edward – they were too light and rhythmic. Then I recognized them – Alice, Edward's sister. It didn't occur to me that Alice might want to talk to me until she sat down across the table from me and said, in her tinkling voice, "Hi. I'm Alice."

It took me a second to unscramble my brain so I could answer. "I'm Bella."

Alice laughed. "I know. Everybody knows who you are – word spreads. You probably already knew who I was, too. I just figured I'd be polite and introduce myself anyway."

"That's always nice," I replied lightly. I was strangely at ease talking to Edward's sister, even though I'd just found out she was a vampire. Alice was still a partly unsolved mystery, though – I still didn't know what she meant when she talked about "seeing" things.

Alice sighed. "Anyway," she began, her voice suddenly business-like, "I didn't come to talk about how word travels in Forks. I'm here to tell you that Edward might start acting strangely soon."

My heartbeat sped up. "Define strangely."

Alice's reply was casual. "Not talking to you. Avoiding you like the plague. Acting like he's angry with you. Stuff like that. Don't take it personally."

My jaw dropped. "How can I not?" I stuttered.

Alice laughed. "By keeping this in mind – it's all an act." Alice sighed. "My brother is just trying to protect you, but he's going about it in the wrong way."

I went very still. I knew what he was trying to protect me from, but was it a good idea to tell Alice that? I deliberated for a short second. No – they might leave if they knew that, despite their efforts to keep it from me, I had learned their secret. And the last thing I wanted was for them to leave. I decided to play dumb. "Protect me from what?" I asked casually.

Alice chuckled. "You're fishing," she mock scolded. Then her voice was serious. "You know we're not... normal. Edward is trying to protect you from what we are. From himself. He will try to drive you away. Don't let him."

I rubbed my forehead. "If Edward wants me to go, I will," I told Alice softly. It was true – if Edward wanted me gone, I would go. It would break my heart, but still.

Alice laughed, in high spirits again. "But here's the beauty of it – Edward doesn't want you to leave. That's why he's asking you to."

I couldn't make sense of the statement. "What?" I asked.

Alice's clothes rasped softly as she leaned forward. "Think about it. Why would Edward ignore what he wants – you to stay – in order to protect you?"

I blinked, confused. "I don't know what he thinks. I don't know why he would do that."

"Don't you?" Alice asked, wicked humor in her voice. "Can't you think of even one reason?"

It was her tone of voice that clued me in. Heat rushed into my face as I grasped what Alice was implying. Edward would ask me to leave, even though he wanted me to stay, if he had feelings for me. "That's ridiculous, Alice," I mumbled, mortified. I believed my words to be true – how could the perfect Edward ever have feelings for me, the ordinary human?

Alice laughed again, and I heard her stand up. "Only time will convince you, I suppose. Just don't let him push you away. Your patience will be rewarded – eventually. And, by the way – please don't tell my darling brother that we had this conversation – he might just kill me."

And with that, I heard Alice's dancing footsteps skip lightly away. As I listened to her footsteps fade, I only had one thought in my mind. _Alice said that Edward would be acting strangely. I wonder how bad this is going to be. _


	7. Stop

Disclaimer: I still don't own twilight. Stephenie Meyer still does.

Edward's Point of View

To my credit, I didn't give in to my desire to talk to Bella within one week, as Alice had thought. I held out for six weeks. I held out, even though Bella greeted me cheerfully every day in biology, and pretended not to notice my stony silences. I could have held out longer – maybe permanently – if it hadn't been for that vile, impudent, _persistent_ boy who was always thinking thoughts about Bella that made me want to kill him. Mike Newton. The girls-choice dance was coming up, and – due to my coldness toward Bella – he had been expecting her to ask him. But the dance was that weekend, and he was starting to get nervous. Was Bella too shy to ask him? Had she already asked someone else? Probably not – surely anyone she asked would brag about it to the entire school. That day, Mike Newton finally plucked what little courage he had, and asked her. "Hey, um, Bella?"

She turned her sightless eyes toward him. She cocked her head curiously as she detected the embarrassed edge of his voice. "Yeah?" she inquired. I suddenly realized that I was furious. That _boy_, that _child_, was going to ask her to the dance. And I was anxious – what if she said _yes? _I ground my teeth and waited to hear Bella's answer.

Mike cleared his throat, and shot a glance toward me. _Crap, why'd I have to ask her with _him_ here,_ he thought gloomily, then returned his attention to Bella. "The dance is coming up," he said, stating the obvious.

Bella's eyes went wide in what looked like something akin to horror. She took a deep breath, and composed her face with some difficulty. I grinned fiercely, feeling like I had just won a competition, not even caring that Mike could see me. _She know_s, I thought gleefully. _She knows he's going to ask her, and she is not happy about it_.

"Yeah," Bella said, in an emotionless voice. "It's this weekend, I think."

Mike didn't notice the lack of interest and enthusiasm in her voice – he was about to take the leap. "So I was wondering... if maybe you would ask me to go with you," he rushed the words in his hurry to say them before he lost the courage. Coward.

Bella grimaced slightly, and rubbed her eyes like she had a headache. "Thank you, Mike, but I'm not going to the dance."

The victorious feeling surged through me again as I watched Mike's face fall. Then it became suspicious. His eyes flickered toward me again. "Why?" he asked Bella. His voice sounded almost rude. _And you_ are _being rude_, I growled at him mentally, incensed again. _Prying into her business when she's already told you no_.

Bella looked up at him, a little irritated. "I can't really dance," she pointed out.

Mike was vastly relieved. _So it's_ not _because she likes someone else_, he thought. Under this illusion, he instantly began to babble, trying to convince Bella that she could still go, even if she couldn't dance. "That's okay – you could still come! We could just go and hang out, and you could _try_ to dance – you might be able to. Have you ever tried?"

Bella frowned at him. He didn't notice. "No," she replied, "but -"

Mike cut her off. "Well, then how can you know that you can't? I'll help you, and if it doesn't work then we can still just hang out."

My jaw was clenched so tightly that my teeth creaked. Where was Mr. Banner – Mike would have to sit down if he came in and started the class. But today Mr. Banner was running late. I searched briefly for his voice in the hundreds of other voices in Forks High. There he was – in the teacher's lounge, talking to the principal. He would not be here for about five minutes. I could not stand listening to Mike Newton pestering Bella for five more minutes.

Bella opened her mouth to respond to Mike's latest attempt to sway her. _I_, unlike Mike Newton, waited to see what she would say. "Mike, really, I can't go," Bella said.

"Are you sure? Cause-" Mike began.

That was it. I had reached my limit. "I believe," I growled, interrupting him, "that Bella said no." Mike and Bella turned toward me, Mike looking glum and a little afraid, and Bella looking relieved and... happy? I concentrated on Mike. "And," I continued, glaring, "since she has declined, it would be incredibly rude for you to continue badgering her in such a manner."

Mike took the hint, and retreated to his seat. I turned slowly to face Bella again. She was smiling, obviously thrilled that I had broken my pattern of ignoring her. My heart lurched. I didn't want to see this. It would make it so much harder to stay away from her. And yet, at the same time, I _did_ want to see it. I loved that her face – so lovely, so innocent – lit up for me the way it never did for Mike, or any of the other boys in the school. In _this_ school, I realized suddenly, my unease returning. Was there someone else at her old school in Phoenix?

Bella distracted me from this train of thought. "Thanks," she murmured, too low for Mike to hear.

I couldn't go back to giving her a fake cold shoulder just yet. "You're welcome," I whispered.

We passed the rest of the class in silence, thought Bella did glance at me now and then with worried eyes. I couldn't ignore _that_ – I had to wonder what it was that was upsetting her.

So, after the bell rang, I accidentally on purpose knocked her books off of her desk and onto the floor. I quickly knelt and helped her pick them up, and, when we straitened up again, the rest of the class, including Mr. Banner, was gone. "Bella," I began as I handed her books back to her.

She looked up at me, her eyes eager. It was upsetting to watch her reaction, knowing that I would soon disappoint her again. "Yes?" she prompted when I paused.

"I noticed that you looked upset earlier," I said. "Are you all right?"

She grinned at me, and I tried to ignore how happy I felt when I saw her smile. "I was just wondering if you were going to go back to ignoring me," she explained.

Oh, no. She thought I was going to start talking to her again, and she was so happy about it! I hesitated, knowing how upset she would be when I informer her that this wasn't the case. I didn't want to see her hurt. _So don't_. The thought popped up so suddenly that I didn't recognize it as my own at first. _Stay near her, and make her happy. Make_ yourself _happy_. It was so tempting. I wanted to do that more that I'd thought I did. The force of the desire came _so close_ to making me agree. But then I remembered Alice's visions, and my resolve hardened again. I took a deep breath before I answered. "I'm not talking to you again. I was just worried." I did not use the word Bella had used, "ignore". I could _never_ ignore her.

I watched Bella's face fall. "I see," she whispered softly, ducking her head. She turned to exit the classroom.

_No_, I thought. _Don't go_. I reached out automatically and caught the sleeve of her jacket, stopping her. "No," I whispered, not meaning to.

She looked up at me, and I gasped in horror. Her beautiful brown eyes were filled with tears. Two fierce emotions filled me. One was fury at myself for _ever_ hurting her like this. The other was a near frenzied desire to amend my mistake. One tear squeezed its way out of one of her eyes. Again, my hand reached up as if it were a reflex to wipe it away. I froze, my finger hovering a centimeter above her cheek where the tear sat. I forced myself to think about how much my touch would confuse her when she heard what I had to say, and lowered it slowly. "I'm sorry," I forced the whisper out of my tight throat. "I know I'm being cruel, but it's for your own good." I let go of her jacket. "I promise." I walked quickly around her toward the door before I could give in the my desire to drop onto my knees and beg her forgiveness.

Bella's whisper made me pause on the threshold. "You could stop, you know." Her voice was heavy with pain.

I turned instinctively. "Stop what?" I asked my voice rough.

She looked directly into my eyes with uncanny accuracy, considering that she couldn't see me. "Stop running away from me," she answered, her eyes pleading. "Or at least slow down, so I can catch you."

I left, walking too fast, before I broke down right there. I had to protect her, even if it broke both of our hearts. I ran away, exactly as Bella had said, unable to face her pain and her intuitive knowledge of why I did what I did. I ran, more of a coward in that moment than even Mike Newton.

But I could not stay away for long. That afternoon, after I dropped my family off at home, I went to her house. She was sitting in her room, doing her Trigonometry homework. When I could first see her through her bedroom window, she was frowning, her head cocked to the side like she heard something. A few minutes later, she shrugged lightly and went back to work.

At first, as I watched her, I felt guilty. I _was_ spying on her, after all. But then I started to watch her, really watch her, and I was so fascinated that I forgot to be guilty. I had never seen the way she acted when she was alone, and I started to notice little habits. The way she bit her lower lip when she couldn't figure out a math problem, the way she smiled when a blue jay over my head started to sing... it was amazing to me. But what was the most interesting was what she did after she had finished her homework. She started to shift through the CDs she had arranged on her shelf, picking a few up as she deliberated, and unintentionally showing me the titles of what she held. Two of the cases held books on audio – _Wuthering Heights_ and _Sense and Sensibility_ – and the others were music. I nearly laughed out loud when I saw the titles –_ La Boheme_, an opera by Puccini, and My Chemical Romance. Apparently, Bella had a diverse taste in music. After deliberating for a few seconds, Bella selected _La Boheme_, and put it in her small CD player. But, as interesting as the glimpse into her personality by looking at her music was, it was nothing compared to watching her _listen_ to the music. She looked so alive! Her face was serene, joyful, as she listened, and it changed so _fluidly_ to reflect even the tiniest change in the music's mood! It was beautiful – _she_ was beautiful – to watch. And watch I did – until the end of the opera came around, and her face became sad, heartbroken, as the heroine died, and her lover was left to weep for her. Then I had to look away. It reminded me too much of the expression she had worn as I'd crushed her hopes earlier in the afternoon.

And it reminded me of something else – Bella was human; she would age and die, just as every human did. And I would be there, forever frozen at seventeen, to watch. I shook my head hard. Thoughts like that would make me want to be as close to her as possible while I still had the time to do so, and that was not in Bella's best interests. Already, after only six short weeks, I had broken my strict rules and spoken to her. How long would it take me to give in completely? Six months? A year? Not long enough, I feared. Slowly, unwillingly, a new option made itself known. I could leave Forks, and stay away this time, until Bella was gone. I would be farther away from the temptation to ask just one more question, and she would be safe. Furthermore, she would have the time to move on, to find someone else – someone she could marry and have children with. The pain this thought brought along with it was surprising. The anger it brought was as well – what if the _someone_ she married was Mike Newton? But, even as my heart shied away from this plan, my mind recognized that it was the best thing to do. It would keep Bella safe. But, surely, I would not put her in much more danger if I stayed and watched her for just a little while longer.

My phone vibrated in my pocket at the same time that Charlie pulled into his driveway. I glanced up at the sky for a clue as to what time of day it was, and started slightly. It was almost dark – absorbed in my thoughts, I hadn't noticed the passing time. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, only to put it back almost immediately after looking at the caller ID. It was Alice – I didn't want to hear what she no doubt had to say about my leaving again.

After Charlie cooked something that might have resembled beef at one time, he and Bella sat down at their small table and choked the meal down. I shook with silent laughter as I watched Bella force herself to swallow with a straight face, so she wouldn't offend Charlie, I guessed. That seemed like something she would do. After eating as much of the dried out meat as she could bear, she excused herself and took a shower. When she got out, she went back downstairs, and watched the news with Charlie for about an hour, then bid her father goodnight and went to bed. I was a little surprised – it was only ten forty-five, relatively early for an average teenager to call it a night. But, after an hour of watching Bella toss, turn, and cover her head with her pillow, and listening to her mutter about how loud the wind and the rain were, I understood the reason behind her going to bed so early – had she chosen to go to bed at, say, eleven forty-five instead of at ten forty-five, she would have been awake for an extra hour, trying to tune out the wind. Eventually, though, Bella did fall asleep, and that was when the most glorious thing happened.

When I was sure that Bella and Charlie were indeed asleep, I crept closer to the house. I paused under her window, listening carefully once again to make sure that her breathing was deep and even, then I quickly scaled the siding of the house and gripped the outer edge of Bella's bedroom window sill. I hung there, easily supporting myself with one hand, and took a closer look around her room. At the first glance, and from the view of a sighted person, the room might have seemed plain and boring. There weren't many colors, and there were no pictures. But, when I looked closer, I saw things that made Bella's room interesting, if you used your senses of touch, hearing, and smell rather that sight. Intricately embroidered pillows – whose patterns Bella could trace with her fingertips – had been tossed off the bed to make room for Bella. Small figurines were lovingly arranged on her dresser – a small, detailed, wrought iron horse, rearing up on its hind legs; a ceramic rose and Irish Setter, both as detailed and realistic as the horse, were next to it. Bella could feel the lines of these figurines as well, see them in the only way she knew how. There were several books on audio on her shelf, along with multiple CDs. I looked at the titles – Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, Jane Eyer, and several other classics along with more modern books were amongst the audio CDs, and her music collection included Muse, Linkin Park, and Blue October; she also had several operas, other classical works, big band jazz, and even some traditional Celtic music. I was a little amused – she must have reserved an entire suitcase for the contents of her book shelf alone. Her room was saturated with her own unique sent – I beat back the thirst that it caused – but also had a hint of something else. Potpourri maybe?

I lost my focus on the bookshelf and all that it held when Bella sighed. My eyes locked on her face, searching for any sign that she might be waking up. There was a small crease between her eyebrows. I wanted to smooth it, but I knew how disastrous it would be if Bella woke up to find me in her room. However, before I could think about that for much longer, Bella distracted me again. "Okay, Mom," she murmured, without waking up. I stared at her for a moment, before understanding made me grin broadly, and shake with barely contained laughter. Bella talked in her sleep! Oh, this was wonderful. I couldn't hear her thoughts, but I _could_ hear what she said when she was completely unaware of my presence. This was a key to her subconscious, and I was thrilled to have found it.

I watched her eagerly, waiting to hear what she would say next. But she did not speak at first. First, the crease between her eyebrows smoothed out, and she smiled slightly. First, I had time to think that I was glad she was dreaming about something that made her happy, even though I didn't know what it was. Then all thought became impossible. Because the next word she whispered as she dreamed changed me, changed the way I looked at everything, especially her. The word she whispered was "Edward." My name. She was dreaming of me. A warmth, a glow, spread through me, and I gasped softly at it's heat. Everything stayed the same, but changed at the same time. Before, I had lived for my family, the love I felt for them. But this overpowered that. It didn't overshadow it, but neither could it be compared to that love, because it was something different, something greater than that could ever be. And it was all for the human girl I was watching. Bella – _my_ Bella, I knew that now – rolled over and whispered my name again. "Edward," she sighed, "Stay." I immediately forgot my plan to leave Forks. _I will_, I promised silently. Because there was no way I could stay away from her now. It was physically impossible. It would kill me.

_Yet_, Alice had said. _You are not in love with her _yet. I had denied it, but I could see it now, how I had always pushed the strange, powerful feelings for Bella away to be dealt with later, and had not seen what they were. Love. _You are not in love with her _yet. It had been true, at the time.

_But, oh, I am now_, I thought. _I am now_. And, with that, I stopped running, just as Bella had wished.


	8. The Sweetest Thing

Disclaimer: I still don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer still does.

Edward's Point of View

But by morning I had come down from the high watching Bella had given me. I was a little more reasonable. Instead of staying with Bella no matter what, I decided on a slightly safer plan of action. I would not leave – unless it was absolutely necessary. Unless it was the last option in the world, the one _single _option that was left. Otherwise, I was staying, come hell or high water. And I hated myself for it. I loved Bella, of that I was sure. But if I loved her so much, why didn't I leave, and guarantee her safety, let her live a normal life, away from the monsters. It was the logical thing to do. And yet, I couldn't bring myself to take the steps away from her. Not unless there was no other choice.

I watched Bella sleep until about five o'clock in the morning. Then I ran home, still shaken and awed by the revelation that had come to me in the night. And I was eager too – school would start in a few hours, and I could actually interact with her there, rather than just watching her sleep. Just a few hours – or eternities, depending on how you looked at it. When I got home, Alice was waiting for me, of course. When I entered the large family room, she was leaning up against the banister, grinning at me, her face bright with victory. _So_, she began, _you've finally figured it out._ Now _can I meet her?_

I rubbed my eyes briefly. I was still reluctant to bring Bella completely into my world of shadows, but, if I was going to be with her, she would have to meet my family eventually. Besides, if I didn't agree to Alice's wish, she would probably just do it behind my back. "Just – just give me some time with her first," I stuttered. "I want to do this gradually."

Alice squealed and jumped up and down in excitement. _Don't worry about today – it will be great!_ she called after me as she dashed upstairs to share the news with Jasper. As she ran upstairs like she was being chased, Carlisle came downstairs at a much more reasonable pace.

His eyes followed her as she ran, then he turned to me. _What has her so excited?_ he inquired. Then he saw the expression on my face, and his eyes widened. I saw my face through his eyes, and I had to admit, I did look a tad strange. My face glowed with excitement, my eyes were round with wonder and, if I was being honest, shock. There was a tender smile on my mouth. _Edward?_ Carlisle asked, confused, _What happened? _In his mind, he was running over various scenarios to explain how I looked. _Does this have anything to do with this?_ He showed me a memory then – Alice having a vision, then cursing. Jasper darting over to her side and asking what she had seen, and Alice replying in a snarl, "He's _leaving _again." Then another memory – Alice's eyes going blank again, then when they refocused, Alice cheering. This time, when Jasper asked her what she had seen, she just smiled smugly and replied, "Edward will tell you,"

I smiled. "Yes," I replied, then called, in a slightly louder voice, "Rosalie, Emmett, Esme, Jasper, Alice? Could you come down here for a moment?"

They did, and I detected the same curious edge in all of their thoughts. They wanted to know what was going on. Esme spoke first, her voice worried. "Alice said you were leaving, but then she said you'd changed your mind. What happened to make you want to leave in the first place?"

My reply was short – this was not what I wanted to talk about. "I thought it would be best to make sure that Bella would be safe, at the time."

Rosalie frowned at me. "At the time?" she repeated. "What do you mean, at the time? Why did you change your mind?"

I opened my mouth to tell her – but I was suddenly anxious. I hesitated, wondering how to tell them. I began carefully. "It ..... might not be necessary for me to leave. I would rather not ..... not if I can help it."

My family started at me, wondering why I was suddenly so nervous. I was a little surprised at myself as well, but I had no ideahow to _say_ it!_ What are you dancing around? _Emmett demanded. _What ever it is, just say it!_

I supposed that was the best way – fast. I looked at the floor. "I ... I love her." I said quickly, softly. The words were calm and sure, leaving no room for doubt. I was struck again by the certainty of it. I raised my eyes to my family's shocked faces. "I love her," I repeated, a little louder this time, my voice even firmer.

There was a millisecond of complete silence before pandemonium broke out. On the one hand, Carlisle was extremely happy for me, as was Esme, who was trying to keep from jumping up and down like Alice in her excitement. Emmett and Jasper thought I was out of my mind, but they could still tell that I was happy, and were happy for me.

On the other hand, however, Rosalie's face was whiter than white, and her eyes were pitch black with her fury. She was rigid in her chair and her lips were pulled back over her bared teeth. _So what_ _now?_ she snarled silently. _Will you tell her what you are? Bring her here? Compromise us all? She doesn't belong with you. _

I felt an instinctive snarl build in my chest at her words. "No, I will _not _tell her what we are, Rosalie."

Rosalie didn't bother to speak in her mind anymore. "What a perfect way to begin a relationship – with a lie," she said acidicly.

My lips curled up and I tensed to spring as I answered in a blistering snarl. "I will not expose her to our world!"

Rosalie hissed savagely. _You already have_, she told me silently, her mind seething with fury.

I jumped to my feet and started to make a sharp retort, but Carlisle cut me off. "Enough. This is Edward's choice, Rosalie. Not mine, not yours. He will do as he sees fit."

Rosalie got up and stormed out of the house, but not with out throwing a last remark over her shoulder. "Just wait. She will bring the Volturi down on us."

I felt a shiver run through me. If the Volturi found out about about Bella, then they would react in the usual way – kill the threat. A ferocious anger exploded inside of me. _Just let them try,_ I thought to myself. _I'll take on the whole guard single handedly if they so much as touch a hair on her head._ Out loud, I said "It won't come to that." I hoped I was right. I was betting Bella's life on it.

But I couldn't stay focused on the bad things for long. My mind kept returning to the night. The way Bella had said my name as she dreamed of me. I replayed that memory over and over in my head, until I felt like I would burst with the joy it gave me. And as I remembered, three notes popped randomly into my head. Three high, sweet, pure notes, that seemed to express exactly the feelings I had for Bella. I hummed them to myself experimentally. Almost unconsciously, I started to pair the three notes with other notes, experimenting with different melodies in my mind. I had made my way through two measures without really meaning to before an I got an incredible idea. Bella loved music. I would write her a song. A lullaby – it was fitting, since the most wonderful moment of my life had happened while she was sleeping. I dashed over to my piano, siting quickly and playing what I had so far. Perfect. Esme seemed to agree – I could hear her thoughts from upstairs. I quickly added more, using my new, strong emotions as a guide. I had to backtrack a few times – the combinations I tried never sounded _wrong_, exactly, but neither did they sound perfect. And I wanted this to be perfect for Bella.

I wasn't really listening to the thoughts of my family as I played, but when I was almost finished, Alice's thoughts caught my attention. She was brooding over her vision of Bella as a vampire. It had been blurry before, when I was ignoring Bella, but now it was crystal clear, set in stone. Sadness washed over me, and the notes I played reflected the change in my mood. The music became melancholy, wistful, as I remembered that I was such a danger to Bella, and as I wished I could change for her. I sensed that I had come to the right place to end her lullaby, so I played one final note, and let hover poignantly in the air. I played the entire song again, searching for any flaw that I could improve. There were none. I glanced at the clock – it was now six A.M. Only two hours to go until school started. I played every piece of music I could think of to pass the time. It was a good choice – I certainly had plenty of music memorized from the past one hundred years. I wasn't even one hundredth of the way through everything I knew before it was seven forty-five. I stopped playing and ran upstairs to change clothes, anticipation humming in my veins. It was time for school.

Bella's Point of View

After Charlie dropped me off, I trudged to my locker without any enthusiasm. Edward's resistance was wearing me down – I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep up my morale, despite Alice's advice. I went through the day like a zombie, keeping my head down and my mouth closed, but I couldn't keep down my excitement when the bell rang, calling us to lunch. Even if Edward didn't want to talk to me, at least I could hear him talk to his family. I got in line with Jessica and Angela, listening for the Cullen's quiet breathing in their usual corner. But I could only hear four people breathing. I inhaled, sifting through the smell of the food and the multitude of perfumes and colognes, looking for the Cullen's scents. I found all five of them, so who wasn't sitting with the others?

Edward answered me in his own way. After I had gone through the line and was following Jessica and Angela's footsteps to our table, I heard his light steps coming toward us. My heart skipped a beat, then started beating double time. A cool hand reached out and touched my arm, silently asking me to stop. "Would you like to sit with me today?" he murmured, his silken voice close to my ear. I felt heat rising in my cheeks as I nodded.

I'd heard Jess and Angela stop when I had, so I turned toward where I could hear them breathing, and asked, "Do you mind?"

"No," they answered simultaneously.

Edward turned me gently and steered me to a new part of the cafeteria, on I hadn't been to before. I heard a chair scrape the linoleum when Edward pulled it out for me, and he guided me carefully toward it. I sat, my mind churning. What was he _doing_? Why was he doing this, after he all he had told me the day before? He didn't seem like the type to play with a person's emotions. I heard Edward sit down across from me. There was a moment of tense silence between us before I couldn't stand the curiosity boiling inside of me anymore, and gave voice to the question that had been raging in my mind. "What are you doing?" I whispered.

Edward didn't answer for a moment, and I waited, holding my breath. Then he leaned forward, and whispered an answer that made me happier than I'd ever been. "What you asked me to do. I'm stopping."


	9. Talk To Me

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I still don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer still does.

Bella's Point of View

I sat still for a few moments, reveling in the happiness that warmed me like sunshine, letting a huge smile spread across my face. I barely kept from laughing out loud in sheer exuberance. "You know," I said lightly, "you are the most confusing person I've ever met. But," I added, my grin growing wider, "I really couldn't care less right now."

Edward chuckled, the sound as warm and sweet as sunlight and honey, and replied, "You aren't exactly easy to figure out either," he pointed out, "but I can't make myself care, either. In fact, I like you more for it."

I shook my head, still grinning. I doubted that I could _stop _smiling. "Not that it matters, but what brought this on? Yesterday you seemed so..." I trailed off, looking for the right word, "certain."

Edward laughed again. "Maybe someday I'll tell you." Then he sighed, and the sound was anxious, troubled.

I felt the smile slide off my face. "What is it?" I asked.

He didn't answer for a moment. Then he said, "I need say this now: I won't be able to tell you certain things."

I lowered my voice. "Like what you are?" It wasn't really a question – I knew him well enough to be almost positive.

Edward hesitated. "Yes. Like what I am. I know It's unfair, my asking you to be near me without even telling you what I am, but I swear to you, it is for the best."

I suddenly felt guilty. He obviously didn't want me to know what he was – how would he feel if he found out that I already knew? I decided to test the waters. "And if I find out on my own someday? What about then?"

Edward stopped breathing for such a long time that I started to ask what was wrong before he answered softly. "I don't know."

I quickly changed the subject. I wasn't going to risk telling him that I knew if I didn't know how he'd react. "Why did you need to tell me that _now_?" I asked.

"Because I wanted to be as honest with you as I could." The next words were a whisper. "And because I want to give you the chance to decide whether or not you still want to be with me, even though I won't tell you everything."

I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. "Did you think that I would just _walk away_? I've been trying to get you to talk to me for weeks. I'm not going to change my mind now." I lowered my eyes and whispered, "It's too late."

I heard Edward grind his teeth. "Please don't say that," he said, his voice tight. "_Ever_. It won't be too late until you die – and I'm trying to tell you that, if you stay with me, you may very well meet an untimely end. Which is what I'm trying to avoid."

I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. "If you want me to leave so badly, then why are we here right now?" I demanded.

"Are you angry?" he murmured. I couldn't tell if he sounded worried or repentant.

I took a deep breath before I answered. "No. I'm just trying to understand."

I heard Edward's shirt brush against the table as he leaned in closer to me, close enough that I could feel his cool breath on my face. It was like a more concentrated form of his scent, and smelled so heavenly that I had to fight to pay attention to his words. "I'm here right now because I don't have the strength to stay away from you anymore." His voice was so intense that I stopped breathing for a moment. "I tried. You know that. But I couldn't. So I'm giving up. I'm just going to do what I want now, and hope that nothing goes wrong." His voice hardened towards the end of his sentence.

I took a shaky breath and tried to organize my thoughts. "I trust you," I told him. My voice only trembled slightly, I noted with relief.

Edward exhaled in a rush and leaned back. "I'm glad," he said quietly, "but I wish you wouldn't." He paused for a second. "I'm sorry – did that make sense?"

I grinned impishly. "Compared to other things you've said, that was surprisingly straightforward."

Edward laughed, but he wasn't the only one to do so. I heard Alice's tinkling silver laugh, and another deep, booming bass laugh that I hadn't heard before. I instinctively turned toward the Cullens' table, then quickly turned back to Edward, with a blush heating my cheeks.

"Don't worry," he assured me with laughter still in his voice. "They don't mind."

I felt my face grow hotter. "I was just sort of afraid that they might be angry with me," I confessed in a small voice, "since I didn't believe you're version of what happened in the van accident."

"Oh, we are, human," muttered a wry, angry female voice from the Cullens' table. "We are."

The blush, which had been fading from my face, came back in full force when I heard the resentfully spoken words. It wasn't Alice that had spoken – I knew her voice – so it must have been Edward's other sister. Rosalie. A theory that was proven right when Edward growled,"Shut up, Rose."

I ducked my head. "No, it's fine," I said, weakly reassuring. "I'd be mad, too."

Edward stopped breathing again for a moment, something, I was starting to realize, that he did when he was surprised or stressed. "You _heard _that?" he asked, shocked.

I looked up, frowning slightly. "Well, yeah," I replied, confused. "Should I not have been able to? It's not like she was being quiet."

I thought he was going to respond, but instead, he rose almost silently to his feet. "We're going to be late for Biology," he pointed out quietly.

I jerked slightly in surprise – I'd forgotten that we were at school – then realized he was right when I listened to the people around us. There were only about thirty people left in the cafeteria, and most of those were leaving. I quickly jumped to my feet – and promptly tripped over my own chair. But cold, hard hands caught me before I could fall far. My face heated up – for two reasons this time. One was obvious – I had just tripped in front of Edward. The other was completely different – Edward was touching me. It wasn't much – he was just catching me by my elbow and waist – but my elbow felt like it was shooting of sparks.

"Are you all right?" Edward asked, and his voice was soft, gentle.

I didn't trust myself to speak, so I just nodded. He made sure I was steady on my feet before he let me go, then we walked silently to Biology. The halls had been loud from the voices of students who were waiting for the last second to go to class, but as soon as we stepped into the school halls, a hush fell. I could feel my face heating up again, but I tried to ignore it, and kept walking beside Edward, who had made no comment about the reaction to our presence. It felt like the first day of school all over again. I could feel everyone staring, could hear their skin sighing against their shirts as they turned their heads to keep staring at us as we passed, could hear the whispers. To my extreme embarrassment, most of the whisperers were expressing their shock that a gorgeous person like Edward with _me_, an average girl. I knew Edward could hear them better than I could – vampire hearing – and that just made it worse. Because eventually he would look at me and realize that they were right, that he could do so much better than me. I winced.

Of course, Edward noticed. "Are you all right?" he asked immediately.

I could hardly tell him the truth – that I was contemplating his imminent loss of interest in me – so I lied. "I'm just embarrassed," I whispered. He could hear me. "Everyone's staring."

He chuckled. "Let them stare and get it out of their systems. They'll get used to it," he murmured, humor evident in his tone.

Which implied that the student body would have something to get used to – like his being with me. Like he didn't plan on leaving. My outlook on the day brightened considerably.

We sat down at our seats just a second before the bell rang. That day's assignment was to identify the different stages of mitosis of an onion root by examining slides under a microscope – an activity that I obviously could not participate in, so I just sat there while Edward rapidly answered the questions, and hummed a portion of _La Boheme_ by Puccini. Edward finished his work before I could even hum half of the song.

But even though I didn't have the chance to hum very much, Edward recognized the opera. "_La Boheme_?" he inquired.

I blushed. "Yes," I replied. "It's my favorite."

"Why do you like it?" he asked, sounding as if my answer was of vital importance.

I shrugged. "I just like how Rodolfo knows that he can't help Mimi when she gets sick, so, even though he loves her, he lets her go, and tells her to find someone who can afford a doctor. And I like how he hardly ever leaves her when she's dying, even though you know it has to hurt him to watch her wasting away like that." I shivered. Whenever I thought about Mimi's death, I always remembered Rodolfo's anguished cry when he found out that she'd died. It chilled me to my bones. To love someone like that, only to loose them..... it made me cry for him every time I listened to the opera.

Edward had more questions. "When did you first hear it? Not many seventeen year olds I've come across have even heard of it. Did your mother play it at your house in Phoenix?"

I smiled. "No. My mother likes classical music, but she never played _La Boheme_. We were flipping through the channels when I was eight, and I heard this beautiful voice singing..... I made my mom go back to that channel, and I listened. It was in Italian, so I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I loved it." My smile broadened as I remembered. "My mom wanted to watch _Friends_, but I wouldn't let her. She said that she didn't like to listen to songs that she couldn't understand, and wanted to know why I liked it when I didn't even know what it was about." I rested my chin on my hand. "She never did understand that I just liked to feel the music, the emotion woven into it." I sighed, suddenly wistful. "I can only imagine what it would be like to hear it _live_." I suddenly realized that I was babbling, and cut off my little speech. I was blushing again. I'd never really talked about opera to anyone before. There was just something about Edward that made my think that he would understand. "Sorry," I said. "I'm kind of going on and on, huh?"

"No," Edward disagreed instantly. I raised my eyebrows – he sounded like he meant it. "It's fascinating," he continued. "_You're_ fascinating."

The heat in my cheeks increased. "And _you're_ lying," I muttered, looking down.

A cold finger lifted my chin. Another blush rushed up my neck at his touch. "You just don't see yourself clearly," Edward told me, his voice soft and intense. My heart quickened.

Then the bell rang, ruining my moment. I stood, and Edward walked me to the Gym. When we reached the doors, I turned to say goodbye, but Edward spoke first. "Thank you," he said fervently.

I started slightly. "For what?" I asked, my voice a little higher than normal in surprise.

Edward's shirt sleeve rasped softly against his arm as he raised his hand. I felt the coolness radiating off his hand against my cheek when he hesitated, then his smooth, icy fingers brush along my jawline, leaving the skin he touched strangely warm in his fingers' wake. My heart stuttered and beat unevenly.

"For being here," Edward replied quietly, then turned and walked quickly back down the hall with his light, almost imperceptible footsteps. I opened the Gym door with trembling fingers, unable to think of anything besides the fact that I was, without a doubt, unconditionally and irrevocably in love with Edward Cullen.

Edward's Point of View

I walked away from Bella, my dead heart singing in my chest. I was still withholding the most important piece of information from her, and she knew that, but she was still willing to be with me. I was practically flying. There was no way to repay her for that, no way to make her as happy as I was now, but I now knew of something I could do to try to show her how much I wanted her to be happy. I distinctly remembered the way she had mused about what it must be like to see a live performance of _La Boheme_, and I could tell that she wanted to see it. _Badly_. I smiled hugely, imagining her reaction when I put the plan already forming in my head into action.


	10. Plans

Disclaimer: Still don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer still does. Shocker.

Bella's Point of View

The next day in English class, Mike was panicking. I overheard a whispered conversation between Mike and Eric during English.

"Are Bella and Cullen _going out _now?" Mike demanded, sounding horrified.

"How am I supposed to know," muttered Eric. "All I know is that they sat together at lunch and talked."

"Yeah," Mike growled. "_And _they talked in Biology, _and _they talked on the way to Gym! What happened?! Cullen was went from ignoring her to _that_ in _one day! _I was_ sure_ they hated each other. What now?"

"You _could _let it go," Eric suggested coolly.

"_What?!_" Mike hissed. "And let Cullen have her without putting up a fight at _all_? Are you crazy? No," he muttered. "I'll just have to ask her out soon, before they can really get together."

Eric chuckled darkly. "Didn't she turn you down for the dance, Mike?" he reminded him. I felt blood heat up my face at the memory of Mike's persistence.

"Yeah," Mike muttered, and I felt a wave of pity when I heard the embarrassment in his voice. "But that was just because she was afraid of dancing," he continued, trying to convince himself of his own words. "It'll be different this time."

My face was probably glowing like a beacon. I didn't want to have this conversation with Mike again – it was so awkward. He was my friend, and nothing else, but he just kept pushing for more, and, frankly, it was starting to irritate me. As soon as the bell rang I bolted for the door, running away to my next class before Mike could make his move, and managed to avoid him until lunch. Then he caught me outside the cafeteria. However, before he could say more than "Hey, Bella," Edward came to my rescue. Again. He took my hand, wreaking havoc on my heartbeat, said, "Excuse us," very curtly to Mike, and pushed past him into the cafeteria.

I sighed with relief as the loud voices of the rest of the school washed over us. "Thank you," I told Edward shyly, the greater part of my attention focused on the feel of his cool, smooth hand in mine. Tentatively, I squeezed his hand very slightly, adding extra emphasis to my words. I had no idea what I was doing or how he was going to react – I was in uncharted waters, to say the least. But I was still very embarrassed and a little hurt when he quickly eased his hand out of mine.

However, Edward quickly put me at ease with his reply. "It was my pleasure," he said wickedly. "The look on Newton's face was more than worth it."

I had to laugh, even though I couldn't help feeling bad for Mike. "I bet he's mad."

"He absolutely loathes me," Edward confirmed cheerfully. Something about his tone made me think that the feeling was mutual.

"You can't know -" I started to disagree, but stopped in mid sentence. I'd remembered my first day at Forks High School, remembered how Edward had spoken to his family, as if he was answering unspoken questions. Maybe he _could_ know what Mike was thinking. Hmm..... Interesting. I would have to think about that.

"Yes?" Edward prompted, when I didn't finish.

I smiled wryly. "Well, I _was _going to say that you can't know what Mike's thinking, but, then again, the usual rules of can and can't don't really apply to you, do they? I don't think I'm going to say you can't do anything – you may very well prove me wrong later."

Before Edward could respond, I heard a deep bass chuckle from the Cullens' usual table. "Perceptive isn't she, my brother?" inquired a low, deep, teasing voice. "And _so_ ironic that she's the one exception to -"

"Shut up, Emmett," Edward hissed, furious and strangely desperate, before Emmett could finish.

"She's going to figure it out sometime," the voice – Emmett – grumbled. "Or you'll tell her, eventually."

I looked up, right toward Emmett's voice. "But that time will be a time of his choosing," I breathed, with a nod to Edward.

There was a strange moment of silence – the rest of the people in the cafeteria kept on talking, but Edward and the Cullens went dead quiet, not even breathing. I heard the people in the lunch line in front of me move forward, and I did too. "Honestly," I muttered. "I'm blind, not deaf."

Alice laughed her tinkly little laugh, breaking the Cullens' silence. "We've noticed. Hi, Bella!"

I smiled. "Hi, Alice," I whispered back.

Edward recovered from his shock. "How did you know her name?" he asked.

Oops. I wasn't supposed to have met Alice yet. But, luckily, I was able to come up with an answer that _was_ partly true, at least. "I've heard you talking before," I reminded him. "And whenever you talked to Alice, Alice's voice responded. I connected the dots."

We didn't say anything else until we'd sat down at a vacant table. I wasn't sure, but I thought it was the same table we'd sat at yesterday. As Edward held out a chair for me and I sat down, I heard Eric murmur coolly, "Looks like you just lost your chance with Bella. Hope you didn't make any plans for this weekend," to Mike.

I pressed my hands against my burning cheeks – Edward _had _to have heard that. I _hated_ that I blushed so easily. "Thanks again for saving me back there," I said fervently. "I've been trying to avoid him all day, but he probably would have cornered me in Gym."

Edward laughed. "I'll admit, I _did _have an ulterior motive. I wanted to ask you something."

My heart sped. I tried to answer casually. "What?"

Edward drummed his fingers on the table, an unusually nervous sound for him. Somewhere in the background I heard Alice squeal with excitement. "If.... you don't have any plans....." he began hesitantly, "I did wonder if you would like to go somewhere with me this Saturday evening?"

I tried to regulate my breathing. "Where?" I asked.

Edward sounded more excited when he answered. "It's a surprise."

I raised my eyebrows. "A surprise?" I repeated dubiously. I didn't like surprises.

"Yes," Edward replied firmly. "Unless...." his tone became sad, though he tried to hide it. "Unless you wouldn't feel comfortable coming with me."

I smiled at him and waved my hand dismissively at this theory. "It just so happens that I won't feel uncomfortable with you, so, yes, I'll go – wherever it is we're going."

Alice squealed again, and I heard her skip lightly over to my side. "It'll be perfect," she gushed, her soprano voice even higher than normal. "Of course, you'll have to come over a few hours early so I can get you ready, but -"

"Whoa!" I cried, jerking my head around so I was facing her. Edward started to laugh – hard – at the expression of horror on my face, no doubt. "_Get me ready?!_ For _what _?" I demanded.

Alice giggled. "You'll find out when it's time, "she practically sang.

My head was still spinning. "Did you say that I need to come a few _hours _early?" I asked weakly.

Alice's voice was smug. "Yep."

"_Why?_" I demanded. "What are you going to do to me?"

"Oh, you know," she replied casually. "Hair, makeup, nails, et cetera."

"And that will take a few _hours_, huh?" I asked wryly, already resigned. I had a feeling that Alice would get her way, no matter what I said.

Alice giggled again. "I'll come pick you up at about four, okay?"

I sighed. "Sure."

After Alice danced away, I turned to Edward. "Do I want to know what she has in store for me?"

"No, probably not," he replied, laughter in his voice.

Soon after that we went to Biology, then I went to Gym. When I Charlie and I got home, I told him about my date with Edward, and he accepted it with poor grace. The rest of the week passed in a blur, with my time with Edward standing out in perfectly clarity. Then it was Saturday.


	11. Fascinating

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Alice came to pick me at four in the afternoon, as she had promised, and she drove me to her house. My stomach was full of butterflies for the entire ride. "Don't worry, Bella," Alice told me several times, "It'll be fine."

But nothing could soothe me – I had just realized something. I was going to Edward's home – what if his family was there? I still remembered Rosalie's antagonism toward me – what if the rest of his family felt the same way? So it was with a hammering heart and sweating palms that I climbed the steps of their house – old and wooden, by it's smell. The Cullens' scents were strong in the air. I could hear four people breathing quietly – so some of them _were_ home. The door opened before we reached it – I heard Edward come toward us. He took my hand, still strangely hesitant, and whispered in my ear, "I'm sorry about this – they wanted to meet you."

I took a shaky breath. "Sure. It's fine," I said, my voice weak, breathy, and unconvincing.

Edward tightened his hand around mine, and I returned the pressure gratefully. "You'll be fine," he told me, and led me through the door, with Alice at his side. "Carlisle, Esme, Jasper, this is Bella." I listened to the echoes of his voice bounce of the walls of the room. The echoes took a longer time than most normally did to come back to me – the room was huge. From what I could hear, the back wall was made entirely of glass. There were several couches in the middle of the room, and something else..... something big, wooden and hollow.

I heard Carlisle's vaguely familiar footsteps come forward a few paces. "Hello, Bella," he said carefully, trying not to scare me.

I smiled, suddenly confident. "It's nice to meet you again, Doctor Cullen." I held my hand out to shake his.

"Please," he said as placed his cold hard hand in mine, "call me Carlisle."

I smiled and nodded. Carlisle stepped back, and a new set of unfamiliar feet approached me. A strange scent filled my nose, just as sweet and appealing as the other Cullens' scents, but still unique.

"Bella," Edward said, "this is Esme – my mother, for all intents and purposes."

"It's very nice to know you," chimed a soft, shockingly gentle, mother-like voice with complete sincerity.

I blushed very slightly. "Thank you. It's nice to meet you, too." Esme and I shook hands, and Edward introduced me to Jasper who, though he greeted me very cordially, didn't come any closer.

After that, I asked the question that had been bothering me since I'd first stepped into the Cullens' house – what was the big, hollow wooden thing I'd heard?

They all laughed, but not in a mean way. "You weren't exaggerating, Edward" Carlisle commented. "She does have incredibly sensitive ears."

"That's my piano," Edward told me, a note of pride in his voice.

But as soon as he'd said "piano" he'd lost my attention. My head snapped up to look toward where I'd heard it, my eyes flying wide open. It had been so long since I'd played – one of my regrets about living in Forks was that Charlie didn't have a piano like Renee did. Now, the desire to play was so fierce it was almost a pain. My fingers twitched.

"Do you like piano music?" Esme asked, puzzled by reaction.

I nodded roboticly, my attention still focused on the piano, on the remembered feeling of the keys beneath my fingers. "I've played ever since I could reach the keys," I whispered.

"But you're blind!" Esme cried, then gasped. I heard her hand clap over her mouth. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to....." she trailed off miserably.

I managed to turn back toward her and smile. "Don't worry about it," I told her firmly.

"Well, then, you should play for us!" she cried enthusiastically.

_That_ got my attention. "_What?_" I gasped. "No. No, no, no. I haven't played since I came to Forks!"

Then Edward spoke up. "It's just like riding a bike. I'd like to hear you play."

I made a face at him, still terrified by the idea of playing in front of four vampires with perfect hearing, who would hear every flaw, every tiny mistake. "You aren't playing fair," I accused. "_No._"

Alice sighed. "She probably can't play at all," she breathed, so quietly that I could barely hear her. "Sure, Beethoven was deaf, but at least he could see where he was putting his hands."

There was a moment of silence while my face flushed and my had pounded with fury. "Can't play?" I snarled, too incensed to think that maybe Alice was using my own temper against me. I spun around and marched over toward the piano, nearly tripping when my foot hit a raised portion of the floor. I sat on the bench and placed my hands on the keys. The fury flowed through me as I began playing Impromptu Op. 90 No. 2 by Schubert, and I forgot to think about what a long time it had been since I'd last played. Edward was right – it was just like riding a bike. No one spoke as I played the piece perfectly, and that just made it easier to stew in my fury. I could handle blind comments, but not about music. That was crossing a line. I played the last few noted with a little more force than was absolutely necessary, then glared up toward where I could hear Alice breathing. "Is _that _enough proof for you?" I hissed.

They were all quiet for a moment, before Esme said, sounding too surprised to make me feel better, "That was incredible!"

Edward was suddenly at my side, helping mu stand so I didn't trip again. "Why didn't you tell me you could play piano?" he whispered in my ear.

I was starting to calm down enough to be embarrassed by my behavior. "I guess it just never came up," I whispered back.

"Okay, okay, Bella can play," Alice interrupted impatiently. "If everybody's done staring at her, I'd like to get started on getting her ready for tonight." I'd forgotten why I'd come to the Cullen house in the first place – I was suddenly nervous again.

Alice didn't wait for a response and dragged me up the stairs immediately, presumably to a bathroom, where she proceeded to wash my hair, put some good-smelling products in it, and curl it. Then she gave me a manicure and pedicure, and did my make up, chattering at me the whole time. One would not assume that this would take her several hours, but Alice was so incredibly thorough that it did. After she was done working with me, she led me down a hall and into another room. "Stay here," she instructed excitedly, and zipped away. I was only alone for a second. Alice came back, and I could hear something swishing in her hands. "Here," she whispered. "Feel this," and she touched my hands to soft fabric. I ran my sensitive fingertips along it, and realized what it was. It was a dress, with a low neckline, and a thin ruffle where the material gathered running down the left side of the bodice. It's sleeves were long, and gathered at the wrist. I may not have been able to see it, but I could tell that it was absolutely beautiful.

"It's gorgeous, Alice," I gasped. "What's it for?"

Alice laughed. "You, silly. Did you think I'd do all that work on your hair and makeup and then just send you out in jeans?"

It took me a second to respond. "This is for _me_?" I asked my eyes wide. "Good God, where is Edward taking me?!"

She giggled. "You'll see," she sang, and helped me into the dress.

Then, apparently, it was time to leave. Alice helped me downstairs, which, thankfully, was empty except for Edward. He stopped breathing when Alice and I entered the room, then exhaled in a slightly shaky rush. He stepped forward and lightly, carefully, brushed a strand of hair off my neck. My heart stuttered unevenly. "You are exquisite," he whispered. "Shall we?"

Edward placed my hand on his arm and helped me out the door and into the car, but I was preoccupied with a new train of thought. Edward had said that I looked exquisite, but that made me remember that I didn't know what _he_ looked like. Jessica had described him as gorgeous.... a sudden flash of jealousy, of resentment flashed through me. Jessica could see Edward. I could not. And I wanted to, more than I can ever remember wanting to see anyone. I had always been blind – it hadn't really bothered me, it was just a fact of my life. I had accepted it. But now..... I wanted to _see_ him. Wanted to see the face of the man I was in love with. But I couldn't. Unless.... he would let me try to see him in _my_ way..... I considered the possibility as he drove.

Edward pulled me from my thoughts. "What are you thinking,?" he asked, burning curiosity in his voice.

"Just wondering where it is you're taking me," I lied. I would need to think about it before I broached the subject of letting me see him.

Edward chuckled. "You'll see. We'll be there in a few minutes."

Edward's Point of View

I could tell Bella was lying about what she was thinking, but I let it go, even though my curiosity was almost as strong of a burn as my thirst. She respected my secrets, I would respect her privacy. Or, at least, I would _try_ to. I looked at her again. She really was too beautiful to imagine. Alice had curled and arranged her long, glossy brown hair, and had accented her eyes with eyeliner and mascara, drawing attention to their chocolate-colored depths. The blue dress Alice had put her in went well with her fair skin, turned it into cream, and flowed perfectly along the lines of her body, which were normally hidden underneath thick sweaters and jackets. Exquisite, I had called her. It wasn't a strong enough word. Exquisite, angelic, magnificent, _none_ of them were enough. I wanted to take her hand again, to stroke her cheek, to trace the outline of her full lips with my fingertip..... but no. It was too dangerous. _I _was too dangerous.

The grim mood grew. I shouldn't even be doing this. She was so close, here in my car – so fragrant, and so close. I had hunted yesterday, glutted myself, but it didn't really help. It was foolish, inexcusable, to risk her life this way.

Bella looked at me then, a small crease between her eyebrows as if she sensed my distress. She smiled at me. "I _am_ a little excited," she told me shyly. Then her lower lip pouted out the tiniest bit. "How much longer until we get there – wherever there is."

I grinned at her as I pull into the opera house's parking lot. "We're here."

I rushed her to the private box I'd reserved – I didn't want her to hear anything that might tip her off. We sat down, and Bella stroked the velvet chairs with a suspicious expression. She opened her mouth to say something – no doubt to ask me where we were again, when a hush fell on the crowd below us and the lights dimmed. The darkness didn't matter to me – I could see just as clearly – and I saw her frown as she detected the change in atmosphere.

Then _La Boheme_ began. I watched Bella's face eagerly in the darkness as the actors began the opera. A wild gasp tore from her lips, and her eyes went as wide as saucers. She went rigid in her seat and spun to face me. Her hand shot out with incredible accuracy and grasped mine tightly. "You didn't," she whispered.

I squeezed her hand slightly. "You said you wanted to see it live," I reminded her quietly.

"Oh!" she gasped, and clapped a hand over her mouth. "_Thank you!_" she breathed passionately. Then her attention was riveted on the plot unfolding before us. She never let go of my hand.

I reveled in her obvious joy, basking in it, practically flying. I'd made her happy, and that made _me_ happier than I'd been in my entire existence.

Rodolfo spoke one of most famous lines to Mimi, and I leaned close to Bella to translate it in a whisper. "He said -" I began

"I know what he said," Bella interrupted., so focused that she didn't look at me.

A new possibility occurred to me, another thing I had never considered, just like I had never considered that she might play the piano. "Do you speak Italian?" I asked.

Bella glanced at me and smiled. "_Si_," she replied, and returned her attention to the play.

I was dying to know where and when and why she learned the language – the questions boiled inside of me, ready to burst forth at the smallest opportunity, but I pushed them down, and let Bella enjoy the opera. I didn't watch it – I'd seen it many times before. Instead, I watched Bella. I watched her smile and cry as the events happened. She was much more interesting than _La Boheme_. Fascinating.

After _La Boheme_ ended and we stood to leave, Bella looked at me with indecision on her face.

"What is it?" I asked, worried.

"Nothing," she assured me, but she was biting her lip. Slowly, very slowly, she leaned toward me and, even more carefully, wrapped her slender arms around my waist and hugged me. _Oh_, I thought, pained, as the thirst burned in my throat like fire. But I accepted the pain. If it was required to be near her, then I would suffer it, and do so gladly. I was thrilled at her touch – I did not repulse her. Even more carefully than she had, vividly aware of how breakable she was, I hugged her back. "Thank you," she told me again, her face against my chest. "That was perfect."

I tried to formulate a response despite being distracted by the heat Bella threw off, her arms around me, the strange, unfamiliar hungers that her touch brought with it, and it took me a second. "You're welcome," I said haltingly. She was more than welcome.

I pulled away before I hurt by accident – I would be making no mistakes tonight – and we made our way back to my car, and started the drive home.


	12. Are You Afraid?

Disclaimer: Still don't own Twilight. You all know who does.

Edward's Point of View

On the way, we had a friendly debate about the different performances of La Boheme, and who we thought played the different characters better. The trip didn't take nearly as long as I wanted it too, even though I drove slowly – for me, at least – to prolong our time together.

Too soon, I pulled into her driveway and walked her to her door. A quick glance at her face revealed that she wore the same anxious expression that she'd had on the way to the opera house. Again, I asked her what she was thinking, but this time, instead of lying, she hesitated.

"Actually," she began timidly, "I was thinking about.... seeing you. You know," she explained, blushing, when I, shocked, didn't respond immediately. "Actually _seeing_ you. As in, with my eyes."

I pulled myself together. "Why are you thinking about that?" I asked, wishing more than anything that I could just_ hear _what was passing through her head.

Her blush deepened. "Well," she started, then sighed sharply. "I don't know how to say this," she muttered. "Never mind." And her hand reached out to open the door.

I just about imploded. She couldn't do that to me! Dangle that in front of me, and then just pull it back. Even if she didn't know that this was just making the old frustration of not being able to read her mind worse, she should have known me well enough by then to know that I wouldn't let it go that easily. It was torture! I quickly reached out and stopped her hand. "Please tell me," I begged. I needed to know.

Could her face get any redder? I wasn't sure, but I wasn't going to put anything past that spectacular blushing ability she had. "If I concentrate," she muttered, looking down, "I can build sort of a model in my mind by feeling something. Anything – figurines, if they're small enough..... and faces." That last bit was almost incomprehensible, she mumbled it so quietly and quickly. But then I understood what she was asking.

"Oh," I said, and thought hard about it. Could I _stand_ that? Could I control myself with her so close, hands touching my face, so close to my mouth, my _teeth_? With her wrists and their fragile veins, covered by such a frail layer of skin, so close to my nose, where I would have no chance of escaping her scent? I had no idea. And that terrified me. But what could I_ say_? "No, you shouldn't do that because I might give in to the blood lust I feel for you.... because I'm a vampire"? And then, in another corner of my mind, the side of me that wanted to feel her hands against my skin, making the decision so much more difficult.

I debated for too long. Bella, her face glowing like a beacon in embarrassment, murmured, "Okay. See you later," and bolted for the door.

Instinctively, I reached out and caught her hand again. Also instinctively, wanting her to stay for as long as possible, my mouth blurted out the answer that would give us the most time. "No, no. It's fine." I wanted to kick myself! Or bang my head against the siding of her house, but that would hurt the house more than it would hurt me. I didn't know if I could do this! But there was no taking my words back now, not when Bella's face lit up, so happy, so eager. I took in one last deep breath that was only partially flavored with her scent – for I would not breathe again for a while – and took hold of both her hands, bringing then up to my face.

It was exactly as bad as I'd imagined. I could feel her pulse in her fingers, feel the shivering heat it sent against my skin, and I could remember her smell – so clearly I might as well have not been holding my breath. I searched desperately for a distraction, anything that would help me resist.

I found one in Bella's face. Her eyes were closed in concentration, her face intense and severe, made even more so by the drastic division of light and shadow on her face caused by the porch light. Her fingers skimmed, light as feathers, across my face, taking in every line, every angle. Bella lightly traced the shape of my cheek bones, my forehead, my nose, my lips, my eyes, with her warm fingers. Her touch was electric, too, tingling, stinging without pain. Her hands moved down to my chin, ran along my jawline, and then under the edge of my jaw, where she paused. Her forehead creased in a slight frown, and her eyes fluttered open. There was the strangest look on her face.

"What's wrong?" I breathed, using up some of my air supply. When she didn't respond, I reviewed the situation, and quickly found the problem. And when I had, I wished I hadn't. Bella's fingers were resting over my carotid artery. _Where any human should have had a pulse_. But I was not human. My heart had not beaten in decades. And my skin was still beneath her fingers.

I went as cold as ice. Swiftly – too swiftly for a human – I jerked myself away from her, from the reminder that I was not, and could never be human for her, and from a very disastrous situation. I was supposed to be keeping the secret – _not_ revealing just how inhuman I was. As if she didn't already know enough.

By the time Bella gasped at my sudden absence, I was already in my car, backing out of the driveway. She stared after me, her eyes wide, and one hand raised like she wanted to me to come back. But I could not. Could not face the questions that I knew would follow, and knew I would be able to answer. I was turning the corner at the end of her street when I heard her whisper, "I'm sorry."

I laughed blackly to myself and floored the accelerator. Of course she was. The one thing that was so glaringly_ not _her fault, and she was sorry for it. As though she could change me back into a human. It was Bella, through and through. I gave another humorless chuckle as I drove home to drop off the car and change clothes. Yes, Bella was backwards in many different ways. She embraced the things she should fear – namely me. She felt the need to apologize for things she didn't do. She was blind, and yet she saw things more clearly than any other human I could think of. And different, Bella was very different. She did the things that so many would have considered impossible. She could walk into a room and tell what shape it was, whee the furniture was, and even what the walls were made of by the sounds they made when echoes bounced off them. She had learned to play the piano superbly, using only her ears and hands until she had the entire keyboard memorized.

I sighed, my black mood passing. Bella was so full of surprises and mysteries. I really hadn't seen her speaking Italian coming. And she had reacted so calmly when she had felt my absence of a pulse! No screaming or fainting. Just a frown and a curious glance. And, while her hidden depths made being with her a little harder because I didn't quiet know what to expect, it also made me fall deeper in love with her.

I drove through the misty forest until I got to my home and parked my Volvo in the garage. I was suddenly in a hurry to run back to Bella's house and watch her sleep, to see if she was more horrified than she'd let on, to hear what she would say when her subconscious ruled entirely and she wasn't on guard.

But my family was waiting for details in the front room. Esme jumped to her feet when I came through the front door. "How did it go?" she breathed clasping her hands. "Did she like it?"

An involuntary pulled up the corners of my mouth as I remembered the shock and joy on Bella's face. "Yes," I assured her. "She loved it."

Carlisle looked at the expression on my face and grinned. "Edward can give us a more thorough telling of Bella's reaction later – if I'm not mistaken, he has somewhere to go."

"Oh!" Esme cried, about to burst with satisfaction that I'd finally found someone. "Of course!"

I dashed over and kissed my mother quickly on the cheek before running up to my room and grabbing a change of clothes. Alice's thoughts, unusually hesitant, made me stop. _And how did she react to you're lack of a heartbeat? _ I sighed. Alice had seen it.

"She handled it well," I muttered in response and pulled a long sleeved on. Alice didn't ask anything else, so I finished changing and darted out the door. I was back at Bella's house within a couple of minutes.

I listened closely and looked in the window. Bella's breathing was deep and even – she was asleep with her back to the window. It was too easy to scale the house's wall, open her window, slip in, and close the window again. But Bella's heart stopped, then started beating double-time. She went stiff beneath the blanket. Had she heard me? I froze, not moving, not breathing. Soon, Bella relaxed. Her heartbeat slowed. She sighed softly. And I began to relax with her. She hadn't heard me. She might have been able to hear our voices, but surely not our footsteps. Surely those were too soft, even for her sensitive ears. I breathed again. Bella sighed again and rolled over so that she was facing me. Her eyes were closed. But she spoke. "Maybe you should tell me what you're doing in my room," she suggested softly. At first I thought she was talking in her sleep, but then her eyes opened, and she stared right at me. I froze again, holding my breath. If I didn't convince her that there was no one here, I was in trouble. Bella grinned in the darkness. "Hold your breath all you want, Edward," she said quietly, sitting up and pulling the blankets around her. "I can still smell you."

Well, that was it, then, wasn't it? I was caught, caught like some sick Peeping Tom, like a stalker. An obsessed vampire stalker. Which, I suppose, was sort of what I was. I exhaled in a rush. _Stupid!_ I scolded myself. Stupid_ to underestimate her! _Stupid _to come here! Fool! _Out loud, I whispered, "I'm..... so sorry." That wasn't nearly enough. I should be..... actually, I had no idea how to remedy the situation.

But Bella brushed my apology off with a wave of her hand as if it wasn't required. "Why don't you sit down?" she breathed, trying not to wake Charlie, and gestured to an old rocking chair in the corner. "We needed to talk, anyway."

Confused, I did what she asked automatically. Wasn't she supposed to be angry? Shouldn't she be yelling, or calling for her father to come – and to bring the gun – because there was an uninvited boy in her room? Surely this calm wasn't normal.

Bella sighed and rubbed her eyes. "I'm pretty sure you know what we need to talk about," she began.

I thought so, too. She would no doubt tell me that she had realized what a freak I was , and that she never wanted to see me again. That was understandable. Painful for me, but still understandable.

Bella looked at me, deadly serious. "What are you?" she asked.

The question, so different from what I had been expecting, threw me off guard. "What?" I asked, even though I'd heard her perfectly.

Bella tucked a strand of wayward hair behind her ear. "I think it's about time you told me the truth," she elaborated, her face still so serious.

And the floodgates opened. I don't know why, but all the anger and frustration that had been building up in me was set loose. "I can't!" I cried in an agonized whisper, wrenching myself to my feet and pacing around her tinny room. "You don't understand! I can't tell you – you'll _finally _come to your senses, you'll _finally_ see me for what I am, and you'll _finally_ hate me! Hate me for the monster I am. You'll run away from me, _screaming_. I'll _disgust_ you! I should tell you, to _make_ you run away, to _make_ you be safe, but..... but I can't."

Bella was quiet, her eyes were round. "Do you think it's that bad?" she whispered. "So bad that I'll _hate_ you?" Now she looked a little angry. "I can't hate you, no matter what you are."

I made a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "Yes, you _can_ hate me,and, yes, it _is _that bad."

Bella's voice was quiet and firm. "I won't run away."

"Yes, you will," I breathed. I was certain of that fact. How could she _not_ run away?

"You called yourself a monster," Bella mused.

I barked a quiet laugh, still pacing. "Yes. You should believe me."

Bella just followed me with her eyes, her perfectly calm eyes, and didn't answer.

Then, suddenly she said, "You know that saying, 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'?"

"Yes," I growled, not liking where she was taking the discussion. "But there is nothing beautiful about me."

She smiled indulgently. "Well, I personally believe that beauty _is_ in the eye of the beholder. And so is monstrosity, and, frankly, Edward, I don't see anything monstrous about you."

I couldn't believe her. Was she _deaf_? I had told her – _several times _– that I was a monster! Why didn't she believe me? "That," I spat, "is because you don't know what I am."

Bella let me pace a while in silence. Then, very, very quietly, she said, "Don't I?"

I jerked to a halt. Bella was looking right at me, so calm, and strangely certain. But I was certain, too. "You can't know," I whispered, agonized. "If you knew, you wouldn't be here."

"I thought you'd piece it together," Bella whispered, shaking her head. "After you found out that I could hear your family talking at lunch, I thought you'd figure it out."

"What are you talking about?" I growled, to tense to move now.

She looked up at me steadily. "The day after the accident," she began, "You were fighting with Rosalie."

I remembered. Rosalie had been convinced that Bella would tell someone what she had witnessed. I had argued that, even if she did, there would be nothing in her story to make the good people of Forks think of..... Oh, God.

Bella heard the horror in my silence. She nodded. "Vampires," she said softly.

She knew. She _knew_. She _had_ known, for quite some time now. And yet, she had gone with me to the opera, alone, she was sitting here with me, alone. But after the initial horror, there was also a strange relief. She knew. There was no more reason to be dishonest. The charade was over. She knew. I had told her myself, though I hadn't known it at the time. But, if she knew, wouldn't she leave, or ask me to?

"And after you found out?" I asked. I had to know what had been going through her head, if she was going to leave.

"I had to think," she whispered. "I wasn't expecting to find out like that, so I was.... well, I was surprised. But....." she trailed off.

"What?" I demanded.

She looked into my face. "I decided it didn't matter."

That was not the answer I had been expecting. It made me angry. I was trying to _protect_ Bella – and she was making it so much harder by not wanting to be protected! Did she have no sense of self-preservation at all? I wanted her to be safe, in a way, wanted her to leave, but she wouldn't. And I was not strong enough to do it. "It doesn't matter?" I hissed.

She shook her head. "No."

"What do you mean, _it doesn't matter?_" I had to make her understand. I crossed to distance between me and her in two steps, knelt in front of her bed so our faces were on the same level, and gripped her gently around the upper part of her arms. "_I'm not human! _I'm a monster, Bella, please try to understand that – a _killer_!"

"I don't care," she whispered, her voice gentle, offsetting my harshness.

Telling her I was a killer wasn't enough – I had to confess everything. "I wanted to kill _you_." I breathed, cringing at the memory of the overpowering urge. "_So_ badly. I've learned to control my thirst, it's almost easy, second nature now. But _you_ – _your scent_ – it's like nothing I've ever come across before. So mouthwatering. So hard to resist. It's like you're my own personal brand of heroin. I almost _didn't_ resist."

Bella's face was pale in the dark, but she still remained infuriatingly calm. "I know."

She didn't care. She really, truly, didn't care. "Why doesn't this_ matter _to you?" I had to understand.

Her face went red. She raised her hand to brush her fingertips against my cheek. "You know why," she murmured. "The same reason you're here right now."

I was here because I loved her. Happiness rose in my chest, threatening to constrict my throat. But I had to try to make her fear me one more time. I leaned closer to her until there were only inches between our faces. Bella's heartbeat quickened. "You know how close I am right now." It was not a question, She could feel my breath on her face, feel the coolness I radiated.

Bella nodded. "Yes."

"And you're not afraid?" I asked, almost dreading the answer.

Bella's chin lifted slightly. "No."

She meant it – it was clear in her voice, her face. The joy that I had been repressing flooded me, and I couldn't help but laugh. I hadn't consciously planned my next action, but maybe I'd known I would do it somewhere deep in my mind. Maybe I hadn't_ really_ leaned so close to Bella just to try to frighten her. Maybe I had realized that she would still love me even though I was a vampire, and that, when I found that out, I would do exactly what I did next.

Which was softly and carefully press my lips to hers.


	13. Lions, Lambs, and Questions

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. The crazily talented Stephenie Meyer does, and she won't give it to me.

Bella's Point of View

I was not expecting him to kiss me. That was fairly out of the blue. So my reaction caught me off guard, too. My stomach tightened; my lips burned. My breath came in a wild gasp and my fingers knotted in his hair. His scent filled my nose.... and my lips parted to take in as much of that heavenly smell as I could.

And Edward froze. His cold hands swiftly and with irresistible force untangled my hands from his hair and pushed me back. It didn't take me long to realize that my enthusiastic response had been a mistake. Edward's teeth made a grinding sound as he clenched his jaw. He wasn't breathing. I stopped breathing, too. I didn't move, sensing that movement would only make his struggle harder. As if my pounding heart wasn't already doing that. I waited until he started breathing again and his hands loosened their hold on mine before I spoke. "Sorry," I breathed.

Edward gave one strained chuckle. "Don't be. I probably should have warned you."

I laughed, too, though mine was more breathless than strained. "I don't really think that would have helped." In fact, I was sure of it.

Edward sighed, and laughed a little more naturally this time. "I'm stronger than I thought."

"I'm sorry I can't say the same," I whispered, blushing.

Edward _really_ laughed now, light and carefree, but quietly – Charlie was asleep, and I could only imagine his reaction if he woke up and found a boy in my room. Not that he could catch Edward, but still. "You _are_ only human," he pointed out, and touched the tip of my nose with his finger.

I mock frowned at him. "Gee, thanks." Then my frown became real. The countless complications of Edward and me being together were starting to come into focus. I had always been aware of them, but not quite like this. "This is going to be difficult, isn't it?" I whispered.

Edward knew what I was talking about. "Very," he replied solemnly and sadly. "And very dangerous for you."

"We'll figure it out, though," I said, half asking and half stating.

Edward released one of my hands and brushed my cheek with his fingers. I put the hand he'd let go of over his, holding it to my face. "Yes," he answered. "One way or another, we'll make it work."

All of a sudden, the sheer impossibility of this moment hit me, and I started to giggle. I clapped the hand that had been over Edward's to my mouth, trying to smother the stupid laughter.

Edward was quiet for a moment. "I think I missed something," he observed.

"It's just," I gasped, "that this -" I gestured between the two of us, "has got to be pretty rare, right?"

"Yes," Edward answered slowly, "I don't know of many other vampires falling in love with humans." And then he got it. He started to laugh, too, though his had a darker edge to it. "What are the chances?" he muttered dryly. "You_ truly_ have the worst luck in the world." He dropped his hand away form my face.

I raised an eyebrow, the giggles subsiding. "Or the best, depending on how you look at it."

He sighed. "No, I'm pretty sure it's the worst."

I guess we'd just have to agree to disagree on that particular point. I ducked my head, fighting the urge to argue.

Edward sighed again, but it wasn't so desolate sounding. He cradled my face in his hands. "And so," he breathed. "the lion fell in love with the lamb."

My heart stuttered at his words. "What a stupid lamb," I murmured, trying to breathe evenly.

Edward chuckled. "What a sick, masochistic lion," he countered. He moved his hands from my face and took my hands again. "Now," he said lightly, "I assume you have some questions that you've been dying to ask for a while."

I rolled my eyes. "Only a million or two." I settled into a more comfortable position. "You'd better get comfortable," I warned, "because you're going to be here for a while if I'm going to be asking questions."

Edward laughed in a whisper. "I believe I can handle that." He joined me sitting on my bed, and we leaned up against the head board, still holing hands.

Finally, a chance to ask all the questions that had been tormenting me for months. "First of all," I began, "What does Alice mean when she talks about seeing things?"

Edward hesitated. "It's a little strange," he cautioned.

"Try me," I said calmly.

Edward squeezed my hands and began. "Alice sees the future, the things that might happen."

I absorbed that for a minute, then asked, "How? I mean, what triggers the visions? When does a random possibility become what will happen?"

"Alice's visions are based on the choices people make," Edward replied. "So Alice can't see what will happen until the person involved makes a choice. For example," Edward explained. "If you went to the grocery store to buy milk, but you couldn't decide between skim milk or two percent, Alice would be unable to see which you would buy until you had made up your mind." His voice hardened. "And, since people can always change their minds, the future is never set in stone."

"And you're not going to tell me why you sound so angry, are you?" I asked

"No," he replied, and his tone closed the subject.

I nodded, accepting that – for now – and went on to my next question, which was more a little more difficult to phrase. "On my first day of school, you were talking to one of your siblings, and..... I don't know, but you paused after you said something, and then it sounded like you answered a question, except no one else had spoken. And then, the same day you asked me to go to_ La Boheme _with you, you said that Mike loathed you."

"I think I can see where this is going," Edward said wryly. "You told me that you weren't going to say that I couldn't know what Mike was thinking, and Emmett said 'perceptive, isn't she', which implied that you were right."

"Yeah," I confirmed. "So..... _was_ I right?"

Edward sighed. "Yes. I can..... _hear_ what people think."

I pursed my lips. "I thought so, but I figured I should confirm it." Then another thought occurred to me. "But you can't read _my_ mind."

"No," Edward replied, disgruntled. "No, I can't."

I had to laugh at his tone. "That must be_ so _annoying for you," I teased.

"You have no idea," he muttered. "Annoying is an understatement."

I chuckled once more, then continued down my list of questions. "How can Carlisle work in the hospital? Tyler was bleeding after the accident, and I'm sure Carlisle has been around blood for a lot of his medical career. How does he do it?"

Awe entered Edward's voice as he answered. "Through two centuries of torturous effort and struggle. Carlisle is the most compassionate out of all of us. That compassion, along with the time-developed desensitization, has allowed him to look past his thirst and retain an aspect of himself that he has always had, even as a human – the desire to help others. As a human, Carlisle had always wanted to learn, and, after he became a vampire and realized that he had unlimited time ahead of him, he went to all of the universities in Europe, and found his calling – and penance – in saving human lives."

"Incredible," I whispered, echoing the awe and respect in Edward's voice.

"Yes," Edward agreed. "I doubt you could find Carlisle's equal in all of history."

My next question was harder to ask, for it concerned Edward's reaction to me in our first Biology class together. Edward read the reluctance on my face. "Whatever you want to ask, just ask," he instructed. "I won't be offended."

"Okay," I replied doubtfully. "Why did you react so strongly to me when we first met in Biology? You don't respond like that to anyone else, as far as I can tell – why me?"

Edward didn't answer for a minute, and I was worried that I'd put him in another of his dark, self-hating moods that always pulled him away from me. But then he responded. "You know that everyone has a different scent, a different essence totally unique to them." I nodded – that was one of the ways I identified people. By their smell. Edward continued, "And everyone also has their own set of preferences, of both smell ..... and taste. I reacted so strongly to you because your particular scent .... appeals so strongly to me. You – and your blood – smell better to me than any other person I've ever come across in my life. Or existence. Whatever you want to call it." Edward took a deep breath. "Think of yourself as my own brand of heroin – almost impossible to resist. Do you understand?"

I nodded, saddened by the thought that I caused him so much trouble. But my curiosity would not be suppressed for long. "Does anyone else in your family have a special ability?"

"We all bring some of our strongest traits with us into our next lives, but the only other one with a supernatural – for lack of a better word – ability besides me and Alice is Jasper. He can sense and influence the emotions of the people around him."

"During one of your arguments with Rosalie you said that your family didn't follow the vampire stereotype. What were you talking about?" I asked.

"Oh, you know. Burned by the sun, turning into bats, sleeping in coffins, fangs, repelled by garlic and crucifixes – the usual folklore," he replied with a laugh.

"So," I began, cataloging the bits of information I'd gleaned, "you don't turn into a bat, you don't have fangs, if someone brandished a clove of garlic or a crucifix at you, the only thing it would do is make you laugh, you don't sleep in a coffin -"

"I don't sleep at all," Edward interrupted quietly.

"At all?" I asked, startled.

Edward's voice was wistful. "Never."

I continued. "And the sun doesn't affect you."

"It _affects_ me, it just doesn't burn me," Edward corrected.

The obvious question was my next one. "How?"

Edward sighed. "It's hard to explain." I waited, undeterred. "First you have to learn a little Vampire Biology. When we change, our skin changes into something harder than diamond, but with one similar characteristic. Our skin cells break light into prisms and reflect it. We ..... sparkle, I guess you could say. But it's enough that we can't go out in public in the sunlight – we would expose ourselves in an instant."

I started to nod, but I yawned instead.

"You're tired," Edward realized. "I should go."

"I've got one more," I murmured sleepily. "Why did you sneak into my room in the first place?"

Edward shifted uncomfortably. "It's very late," he said quickly. "You should sleep."

"Come on," I urged. "It can't be that bad."

"Yes it can," he muttered.

I smirked. "You said that about being a vampire," I pointed out, "and I don't care about _that_."

"Only because there's something seriously wrong with your sense of self-preservation," Edward grumbled, but he answered anyway. "I came..... to watch you sleep."

I blinked. "Do you do that often?"

"Only once before, and I didn't try to come into your room, which is probably why I didn't get caught that time," Edward replied.

"Why?" I asked, trying to figure out what could motivate Edward to sit there looking at me sleep. It sounded pretty boring to me.

"You're interesting in your sleep," Edward said. "You talk. And your mind is never less guarded than it is when you sleep."

I felt the heat rush up my neck and cheeks. Almost every night since the accident I had dreamed of Edward. "What did you hear?" I demanded, horrified.

Edward knew what I wanted to know. "You did say my name," he admitted.

My face got even hotter. I tugged my hands out of his and covered my face with them. "Oh, no," I groaned.

Edward pulled my hands away from my face and shifted so that he was in front of me. "Don't be upset," he pleaded. "If I could dream, it would be of you."

I smiled in spite of myself. "Flattery will get you no where," I informed him.

"I am not flattering you," Edward said, "I am being completely honest."

I yawned again. "I've answered enough questions for tonight – you should sleep now," Edward murmured. He quickly kissed me on the forehead, let go of my hands, and stood up to leave.

"Don't go," I whispered.

"What?" Edward asked, and paused, puzzled.

I blushed and looked away. "I want you to stay." Edward didn't answer, so I started to babble. "You can listen to my sleep-talking, if you want, and feel free to look around if you get bored, but I want you to stay – if you want to," I hastened to add. "If you don't, or if you already have something going on -"

"I would like to stay," Edward interrupted gently. "I just thought you didn't like me listening to you sleep-talk."

"I'll live," I whispered, still looking down. The next thing I knew, Edward was lifting me off my bed with one arm, and I heard him pull back the covers with his other hand. He laid me gently down and tucked me in, and laid down next to me, on top of the covers. He wrapped his cold arms around me, and I snuggled into his chest.

"Good night," he breathed in my ear, and kissed the top of my head.

"**'**Night," I sighed. I closed my eyes.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Edward murmured. My eyes opened again. "My family and I are going to play baseball tomorrow. Would you like to come?"

I grinned. "Vampires like baseball?"

"It _is_ the American pastime," Edward responded humorously. "Would you like to come?"

"Yeah," I whispered.

"I'm glad,"Edward breathed. "Sleep well."

"Mmm – hmm," I murmured. My eyes closed again, and I slept better than I ever had in my life.


	14. The Game and The Hunter

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or its characters. Stephenie Meyer does.

Bella's Point of View

When I woke up in the morning, I didn't remember the events of the previous day for a while. It was only after I rolled over, hoping for more sleep, that I remembered the opera, Edward staying the night..... I jerked myself upright with a gasp when I didn't feel him near me. But before I could panic, Edward spoke from the old rocking chair in the corner. "Good morning."

A wide, jubilant grin spread across my face. I held my hands out to him and he took them. I marveled at his cool, soft touch. "You stayed!" I observed happily.

"Yes," he responded, amused by my excitement.

I suddenly remembered that I wasn't the only one who lived in this house. I listened for Charlie's breathing, but the house was quiet and empty. Except for me and Edward. "What time is it?" I asked. Edward and I had a baseball game to go to, after all.

"Eleven thirty," Edward answered. Dang. I didn't usually sleep in so late. "I did keep you up rather late last night talking," he pointed out, seeing the shock on my face.

"Yeah, but still." I stretched. "So, did I say anything interesting last night?" I asked, half dreading the answer.

Edward's hand curled tenderly around my cheek, which flamed under his touch. "You said you loved me," he breathed.

My face warmed even more against his hand. "You already knew that."

"Yes, but it was nice to hear it said out loud."

I leaned my face into his hand, and tugged my hand free of his and brushed my fingertips down his cheek. Edward sighed. "I love you," I whispered. It was easier to say than I thought it wold be – it helped that he already knew and – for some unfathomable reason – clearly felt the same way about me.

Edward took my hand and kissed my palm. "You have no idea how glad that makes me," he said.

My lips curled up into a smile. "I can guess." I was still flying with the knowledge that Edward had chosen me.

Edward's breath quickened. "Bella?"

There was something in his voice that made my breath catch, too. "Yes?"

"Remember how I said that I probably should have warned you before I kissed you last night?"

Forming my one word answer was harder than it should have been. "Yes."

Edward leaned closer, so I could feel his breath fan my face as he spoke. "I'm warning you," he breathed.

I tried to gather my thoughts so I could resist the urge to go to far again. "Okay," I whispered. My heart hammered away in my chest. I couldn't breathe.

His hands held my face, stroked a few strands of hair away from my cheek. I felt him coming closer.... and then his lips were on mine.

I somehow managed to stay still, and, to my surprise and joy, Edward deepened the kiss. His long fingers wove into my hair, held me to him. And then my self control flew out the window. My arms wound around his neck, the tip of my tongue lightly traced the icy, smooth curve of his lower lip.... and he was gone. Across the room. Not breathing. I, on the other hand, was gasping for air. "Crap," I gasped, and waited for him to breathe again as my own breathing evened out. "Sorry," I said like I had last night, and wished that I could control myself better.

Edward was breathing again, shallowly, but still breathing. "No," he disagreed, "that was my fault. You were fine until I took it to far. I apologize. I got carried away."

I laughed once and raked my fingers through my hair. "I didn't know that was possible." He always seemed so controlled to me.

He sighed sharply. "It is." His voice was dark with fury.

I cringed slightly. "I'm sorry," I repeated timidly. I had screwed up big time.

Edward exhaled slowly. "I'm not angry with you," he told me, and his voice was calmer.

"What then?" I asked. What else could he be angry at besides me and my unruly reactions?

Slowly, cautiously, Edward approached me. I held out my hand, unsure, and Edward took it. "I'm angry at myself," he whispered. "I am always putting you in danger, just by existing. I should be stronger."

"So should I," I murmured., and changed the subject. "What time is the baseball game?" I wanted time to get ready.

"There's going to be a bad storm this afternoon," Edward replied, sounding as grateful for the subject change as I was. "That's the only time we _can_ play, so, about two."

I frowned. "Why do you need a storm?"

Edward's voice was excited. "You'll find out this afternoon."

My mouth pressed into a wry line. "You know, that seems to be the answer to a lot of my questions lately – 'you'll find out'."

Edward laughed, unrepentant. "Sorry." He didn't sound like it. I think he liked to build suspense. Or just watch me squirm, figuratively.

I made a face at him and stood, pulling my hand away.

"Are you angry?" he asked, worried.

I laughed. "No, but I _am_ hungry." I grinned at him. "I _do_ have to eat every now and then."

Edward laughed with me. "Breakfast time for the human, then," he proclaimed, and swiftly slung me over his shoulder and carried me downstairs, ignoring my laughing protests. "Or, rather, lunch," he said, revising his earlier statement. "It's after twelve."

I kept it simple, just eating a sandwich, and got ready to leave – Edward said the trip to the baseball field would take a little over an hour and a half. Edward ran back to his house and got Emmett's jeep – enormous, by the sound of its engine – and wrote a note for Charlie telling him where I would be, on the off chance that he came home early.

The ride to the place where the Cullens played baseball was indeed a long one, and most of it was over terrain so rough that conversation was impossible. The ride was bone-jarring to me, but Edward seemed to enjoy it – he would laugh every now and then. I guess it's a boy thing. We were deep in the forest when we stopped. The only sounds I cold hear were the wind, rain in the distance, and a few animals. Most of the wildlife was, I guessed, hunkering down in preparation for the storm Edward said was coming. I inhaled, and the smell of the wet trees filled my nose. "We run from here," Edward told me.

"Run?" I repeated, shocked. "How am I supposed to run through the woods?" I was _blind_, for crying out loud.

"Let me rephrase," Edward said lightly. "_I _am going to run, and _you _are going to hold on."

I was even more confused. "What?"

Edward laughed at my tone. "Climb on my back," he instructed. I didn't move, wondering what exactly he was going to do. He chuckled. "You're just going to ride piggyback," he reassured me. I still didn't move, so Edward picked me up and slung me across his back, wrapping my arms around his neck, and my legs around his waist. "Hold on tight," he ordered, and started to run. I didn't have to see the trees zooming past us to know how fast we were moving. I heard us pass them, miss them by mere inches, and I felt the wind whipping against me. It was absolutely terrifying. I clung to Edward desperately with all my strength, praying that we wouldn't hit one of the trees that he passed so closely. Edward never showed any strain – his run was smooth and his breathing unlabored. I wasn't breathing at all.

Then we stopped. "Exhilarating, isn't it?" he asked, his voice a little higher than usual with excitement. I didn't respond. My muscles were frozen, and I still clung to Edward like he was a rock and I was drowning in the ocean. "Bella?" Edward, inquired, worried when I didn't speak.

I unlocked my clenched jaw. "Oh. My. God." My voice was high and shrill. I didn't loosen my hold on him. My heart crashed in my chest. My breath came in uneven shaky gasps. I was dizzy and sick to my stomach.

Edward heard the shocked fear in my voice and pried my arms and legs off from around him with ease. He set me down carefully on the ground. My eyes were frozen wide. "I'm sorry," he said regretfully. "That probably wasn't the best idea. I just assumed – you know how fast I run, and I didn't think it would be such a surprise."

I was starting to thaw. "No," I tried to say. It came out as more of a squeak. "It was very interesting."

Thunder crashed and boomed in the west, and it reminded me why we had come to this place. I listened, and could hear six people breathing quietly not far from where Edward and I were. Something shot through the air, and hit something with a crack of impact. I jerked. "It's okay," Edward murmured. "It's just Alice and Jasper playing catch."

I shook my head and, ignoring the dizziness, got shakily to my feet with a little help from Edward. We walked a little farther through the woods, and stepped into a huge clearing. I could tell because the wind made a different noise as it blew over the grass than when it blew in the trees. I could hear Alice and Jasper still throwing the ball, and Carlisle's footsteps were coming from out in the middle of the field. "What's Carlisle doing?" I whispered to Edward.

"Marking the bases," he replied nonchalantly.

I frowned slightly as we walked toward where I could hear three of Edward's family breathing softly, listening closely to Carlisle's steps. He was walking a long way if he was marking bases..... "And how far apart are the bases?" I asked.

"About half a mile each." It was Esme who had answered. She and one of the other Cullens were coming toward me and Edward. The other who had been with them was walking away. I swallowed uneasily. I had a feeling that one was Rosalie.

I focused on what Esme had said. "Isn't that a little far?" The other vampire with her laughed – a big booming laugh that I recognized. "Hi, Emmett," I said shyly. This was our first official meeting.

"Hey there, Bella," he greeted me with easy familiarity. My eyes widened. Now that Emmett spoke so close to me, I could hear that his voice was coming from above my head – _way_ above. He was _huge_. I looked up automatically, and it was only after he started laughing that I realized my mouth was hanging open. I shut it quickly, my face burning. "Surprised?" he asked wickedly.

"A little, yeah," I replied, still awed by his, well, _hugeness_. The man was a giant. My surprise turned into shock when he lifted me off the ground in a bone crushing hug.

Emmett, Edward, and Esme all laughed at my expression. "Sorry," Emmett said lightly. "I'm just glad Edward's finally got someone – he's been moping for _years_, and it was getting on my nerves."

I laughed. I was thrilled that Emmett, unlike Rosalie, seemed to like me. "I'm sure that's an exaggeration, but thanks anyway."

Alice interrupted our conversation. "Hey! It's time!" Right after she spoke, another peal of thunder rumbled in the distance.

"All right!" Emmett crowed, "Let's play some ball!", and he dashed off to the field after rumpling my hair. Edward made sure I was seated on an outcropping of rock with Esme before he, too, ran off to start the game.

"Are you going to play?" I asked Esme when she stayed beside me.

"No, I prefer to referee – keep them honest," she replied.

I started to grin. "Do they cheat often?"

Esme laughed. "More often than I would like," she admitted.

I snickered, imagining Emmett trying to cheat. He seemed like the type who would do just about anything to win.

The Cullens took their places. As far as I could tell, Edward was in the out field with Carlisle, Alice was pitching, and Jasper was catching. Emmett was up to bat. "All right" Esme called. "Play ball!"

I focused intently, not wanting to miss anything. I heard Alice's hand whip out, the ball whistle through the air for a split second, then smack into Jasper's hand – I recognized the sound.

"Strike one," Esme said. Emmett growled.

Alice's hand whipped out again, the ball screeched through the air again, and this time, Emmett swung the bat around in time to hit it with a bang that was so loud, it echoed off mountains in the distance. I gasped and clapped my hands over my ears for a moment. I immediately understood the need for a thunder storm. The bat they'd used was aluminum – I could hear it ringing from the impact. And I cold hear both Edward and Emmett running, Emmett around the bases, and Edward deeper into the forest – chasing after the ball I could still hear whistling through the air. "Come on," I murmured, urging him forward. I heard the ball begin it's descent. It crashed through the leaves.... and landed in Edward's hands.

"Out!" Esme cried.

I started to laugh. This was the most incredible thing I'd ever heard. Edward broke through the trees on the far end of the clearing, coming back to the game. "Good catch!" I called.

"Thanks!" he called back happily.

The game continued in that fashion for about forty-five minutes, with the score constantly changing. The Cullens played like many other street players I'd heard in my neighborhood in Phoenix – calling insults at the other team and cheering when one from their own team made a run or catch. I was having fun – until, suddenly, Alice gasped in horror. There was one beat of silence, then Edward was at my side, pulling me behind him protectively. Before I could ask what was wrong, the others gathered around Alice and started asking questions of their own. "What did you see?" Carlisle asked, very much the calm figure of authority.

"They heard us playing," Alice breathed. "They're coming. Here. Now."

"Edward, how long?" Carlisle called tensely.

"Three minutes," Edward growled.

"Is that enough time to -" Carlisle began, but Edward cut him off.

"No, not carrying her," he snapped, holding me closer. "And we don't want them to catch the scent and start hunting."

"What do they want?" Esme whispered.

"Nothing," Edward replied tersely. "They're just curious."

"How many?" Jasper growled, his voice dangerous.

"Three – two males and a female," Alice told him.

Emmett snorted, but the rest of the Cullens were silent, deliberating.

Finally, after a few nerve-wracking seconds, Carlisle said, "Let's just continue the game. Edward said they were only curious."

"Yes, but are they _thirsty_?" Esme demanded, obviously frightened.

"No," Edward said curtly, then turned to me. "Take your hair down."

I obeyed, sliding my hair out of its pony tail and shaking it out around me. "What's going on?" I whispered.

Edward growled his answer. "There were some others in the area. They _were_ just passing through, but now...."

"They're coming here," I finished.

"Yes. Don't say a word, and don't move," he ordered fiercely, and planted himself in front of me as the others apathetically continued the game. "I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I'm so very, very sorry."

Then we all stopped breathing as three sets of strange footsteps came into hearing range. The three vampires stepped into the clearing and came forward slowly, respectfully. I tried to be as exact as I could in looking at then, guessing that there were no blind vampires, and unfocused eyes would be a dead give away. The three vampires left a healthy distance between them and the Cullens, and Carlisle, Emmett, and Jasper walked forward to greet them. I was terrified. I knew just how sharp vampire senses were – surely these newcomers would hear my thumping heart soon or smell my blood on the wind. The terror made it hard to pay attention. I heard one of the male strangers introduce himself and his coven – he was Laurent, the other male was James, and the female was Victoria. Carlisle introduced his family and, to my shock, me. "Do you have room for a few more players?" Laurent inquired, sounding relaxed enough. I began to hope – maybe we would get away with fooling them into thinking I was a vampire for just long enough.

"Of course," Carlisle replied. "Three of us were just about to leave – you can take their places. Alice, Edward, you can go with Bella to get the Jeep," he told us.

We were so close to getting away with it. _So_ close. But just as we were turning around to go, a gust of wind much stronger than before came up, blowing Edward, Alice, and my scents over toward the strangers. I heard one of them, not Laurent, inhale deeply. He laughed once sharply. "You brought a snack?" he snarled, and started to come toward us. Edward whirled around and snarled, too. I had never heard a sound like that come form Edward before. It was deep, ferocious, animal-like. It came from a spot lower than where Edward normally stood, so he must have been in a low crouch. It was the most terrifying thing I'd ever heard in my life. The strange vampire who had snarled shifted slightly, and Edward did the same in response.

Carlisle's voice whipped out, low and harsh. "She's with us."

"A human?" Laurent asked, astounded.

"Yes," Emmett's voice was low and deadly.

"You should leave," Carlisle said, and he, too, sounded angry.

"Yes," Laurent agreed quickly. He had to be aware that his coven was outnumbered two to one. "James," he barked. It was a command.

James didn't move. It took one more growl from Edward before he straitened and moved back. Edward did not relax until the three vampires were back in the trees, then he scooped me up in his arms and started running, Alice and Emmett behind us. "What's happening," I chocked out of my fear-constricted throat. No one answered me. "It's not over, is it?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

Edward's voice was bleak, flat, and furious. "No."


	15. Run

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, blah, blah, blah. You all know who does.

Edward threw me unceremoniously into the back seat of Emmett's Jeep. Emmett slid into the seat beside me, and Alice jumped into the front passenger's seat. "Strap her in," Edward ordered Emmett, who rapidly fastened the off-roading harness around me. Edward was already driving.

"What's happening?" I asked again. No one answered. I was starting to get angry. "What. Is. Happening?!" I shouted. "Tell me what's going on!"

Edward finally answered. "He's tracking you."

"James?" I demanded.

"Yes."

I was getting tired of these curt replies. I wanted to know what exactly was happening, and they weren't telling me. But, if I had to, I would drag it out of Edward word by word. "Why?"

Edward sighed – actually, it was more of a snarl. "Because tracking is his obsession, and we've provided him with a beautiful challenge – which is all he asks of life. Seven vampires protecting one fragile human. He's ecstatic." Edward's voice was filled with disgust. "I got a very good look at his mind. The odds are stacked in our favor, which just makes him happier. It's more of a challenge. And he won't stop. He's unshakable once he starts the hunt. We have to kill him now."

"Good," Emmett growled.

I wasn't done asking questions. "Where are we going?"

"Anywhere that isn't Forks," Edward snapped. "I don't want him within a hundred miles of you."

"_But my dad's there!_" I screamed. "James is a tracker! The first thing he'll do is follow my scent to my house!"

"Irrelevant." Edward's reply came quickly, with no hesitation. He meant it.

"IT_ IS_ RELEVANT!" I screeched, and started to tear at the harness. Emmett's hands restrained me. "Take me home! You have to take me home!" I shouted at him.

Alice spoke for the first time."She's right."

Edward snarled at her. "I will not risk it."

"Then what are you going to do? Leave her father unprotected? And what if he dies?" Alice demanded.

"I have to protect her first," Edward growled.

I was planning desperately in my mind. I knew that if I was going to try to convince them to let me lead James away from my father, my plan would have to be near perfect. "Listen," I pleaded.

"No," Edward snapped.

I continued anyway. "Take me home. I'll write a note, say I can't stay in Forks another second or I'll die, or something else dramatic, and that I'm going back to Phoenix. I pack, and I call a cab company to take us to an airport just so the call shows up if Charlie checks the phone records when he finds out I'm missing. We wait until the tracker's watching, then we run, and you can take me wherever you want."

Our tires hit asphalt as we turned onto a road and got out of the forest. Edward was silent as he considered my plan. "Okay," he said finally. "Alice, Emmett, you take the Jeep back home and tell Carlisle and Esme what we're doing. I'll go with Bella to the airport and -"

"No," Alice cut him off. "James saw how you acted tonight. He'll think you're with her, no matter where you go, and he'll follow you, and you'll be alone, with no help."

"Then what do you suggest we do?" he snarled, at his wits end.

I thought hard. "You lead him on a wild goose chase, throw him totally off my trail," I suggested.

"And what about you?" Edward asked.

"I'll go to Phoenix." I'd thought that part was obvious.

Edward laughed harshly. "There will be a note in your house saying you're going to Phoenix," he pointed out. "He'll find it, and know where to find you."

"And you'll make it look like a ruse," I countered. "Besides, he'll know that we'll know he's watching. Do you think he'll believe I'm going where I say I'm going?"

Emmett chuckled. "She's diabolical."

"Emmett should go with you, too," I mused.

"He _did _get an eyeful of Emmett," Alice acknowledged.

"And you?" Edward hissed. "Who will you go with you?"

I shook my head. "I should go alone."

"NO!" Edward roared. His voice was so loud it hurt my ears.

I turned to Alice for support, but she agreed with Edward. "No, she shouldn't go alone. Jasper and I will take her."

Edward sighed harshly and made a sharp U-turn. "Will the tracker beat us there?" he asked Alice.

"No." Her voice was certain.

"Okay," Edward began. "this is how it's going to happen. I will walk her inside and help her get everything situated. Alice, you take the woods to the right, Emmett, you have the woods to the left. After everything is ready, Emmett and I will go back to the house and tell everyone the plan."

The rest of the drive was silent. Every nerve was stretched taunt, every ear was listening intently. When we go to my house, Edward ran me into the house as Alice and Emmett took their positions. Edward immediately started typing a note to Charlie – it would ruin our bluff if he wrote the note – and I started packing. I just threw any random thing my hands touched into an old bag, only packing something specific when I snatched my cash hoard. Edward was already done typing my note and had finished calling the cab.

Edward hustled me down stairs, and pulled me into his arms. We were out of time – this would be the only goodbye we would get. "I love you," he told my fiercely. "We'll take care of this – you'll be home soon."

I held him as tightly as I could, wishing that I could hold him forever. "Be careful," I ordered, my voice thick with tears.

"Don't worry about me," Edward said. "We are strong. Your only concern is staying safe."

I shook my head. I could feel hysteria bubbling up in my chest. Tears started to leak form the corners of my eyes. "If anything happens to you -" I began in a whisper, but Edward wouldn't let me think about that.

"Nothing will happen," he promised, holding me tighter.

"It's almost time," Alice called from outside.

Edward didn't say another word – he just lifted me completely off the floor and kissed me with an urgency that contradicted his reassuring words. The kiss lasted for one short second, and then he was gone, and Alice's tiny arms were around me instead. "It'll be all right," she crooned, and let me cry.

I couldn't bear to think about the possibility of never seeing Edward again. I tried to distract myself. "Is the tracker here?" I breathed. I wanted to discuss our plan, but not if he was listening.

"No. He's following Edward and Emmett back to the house – at a distance," she added when I felt my face blanch.

I nodded, relieved. "You said you and Jasper were coming with me," I choked out past mt tears.

"Yes. I called him – he's on his way now."

"What do you see the others doing?" I whispered.

"Carlisle, Emmett, and Edward are going to lead James north for as long as they can, wait until he gets close, and ambush him," Alice replied.

"What about us?" I asked.

Alice sighed and stroked my hair. "You're going to have to ride in the cab alone – we can't be seen with you if you want us to keep our hands clean with Charlie. Jasper and I will run behind you to the airport in Port Angeles. There's going to be a flight to Seattle – we'll take that, and then catch a connection to Phoenix."

"Will James be alone?" I wanted to know what the odds would be.

"No," Alice said. She _sounded_ calm, but I couldn't be sure. The Cullens were very good actors. "The female, Victoria, will work with him. Laurent won't, though."

"What will Victoria do?"

"Edward took some of your clothes to Rosalie and Esme. They'll use them to start a new trail leading west. Victoria will follow that."

I heard a car approaching. "That's the cab," Alice murmured, and pressed some money into my hands. "Here – this will be enough to pay for the ride." She kissed my cheek. "I have to go now – but don't be afraid. Jasper's here, and he and I will be watching. We'll meet you outside the Port Angeles airport." Then she vanished.

I sat alone on my couch and tried not to hyperventilate as the cab came closer. When it finally got to my house, I nearly ran out the front door. I told the cab driver where I wanted to go, and leaned my head against the window. I heard Alice's running feet alongside the car, with another running vampire I assumed was Jasper. The sound reminded me that I wasn't alone, and comforted me. The drive to the airport lasted about fifty minutes, but felt like five hours. As soon as I stepped out of the cab and onto the curb, Alice approached me, took me by my elbow, and steered me inside. Jasper was right beside us. They bought our tickets and somehow managed to rush the security processes so we just barely caught out flight to Seattle, where we also had to run to catch our plane to Phoenix.

I had kept it together on the short flight from Port Angeles to Seattle, but on the much longer flight to Phoenix, I started coming apart at the seams. I started shaking and the tears started to flow again. A flight attendant quickly walked over to us and asked if I was all right.

Alice intervened before I could answer. "Our grandpa just died," she said, in perfect tones of grief. "We're on our way to the funeral." Then, after the flight attendant left, she murmured, so quietly that a normal human wouldn't have been able to hear, "Jasper? A little help?"

Almost immediately, a tranquil atmosphere settled around me, keeping the pain and bay and the panic unfocused until we arrived in Phoenix and drove a very fast rental car to a nearby hotel. There, I convinced Alice to let me call my dad to reassure him that I was okay, and my mom, to tell her that she didn't need to leave Florida, where she was staying with Phil for baseball. Neither of my parents answered their phones, so I left messages at both my mom's and dad's houses – my mom was supposed to check the phone daily for messages – telling them that I was safe, and giving them Alice's number in case they needed to call me. Then I just sat curled up on the hotel room's couch, listening to the TV that Alice had turned on, and picking at the food she had ordered from room service. I listened to the six o'clock news, then the ten o'clock news before I practically passed out on the couch from exhaustion.


	16. Phone Call

Disclaimer: Don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

When I woke up, I was on a bed – Alice had moved me, I guessed – and I was stiff and sore. I sat up and moaned, rubbing my dry eyes. The bedroom door opened and Alice came in. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"Not really," I muttered.

"Your mother called," Alice told me.

I looked up. "She did?"

"Yes," Alice confirmed, sitting on the bed beside me. "But I didn't answer. I thought she might worry more if someone besides you tried to explain."

I nodded – that sounded like Renee. I stretched my stiff muscles, and decided to take a shower. The hot water helped a lot. I finished just in time to hear Alice gasp. "Alice?" Jasper asked. "What do you see?"

"I'm in a room," Alice whispered in a flat voice. "The walls are made of mirrors. There's a band – a gold band around the room. The tracker is there. He's watching TV – no, he's running a VCR."

Jasper's deep voice was calm, practiced, and methodical as he questioned Alice. "Is there anything else?"

"No, just the mirrors and the gold...... but he's not there anymore. He's in the dark now, in another place. I can't see the room he's in. He's running a VCR here, too, but he's watching it more intently here. This is where he decides. The mirror room is where he waits."

I was trembling. I got dressed and went out into the front room again. "What does that mean?" I whispered.

Jasper's voice was bleak. "It means that he won't be in northern Washington, being hunted. He'll get away."

"Where are the rooms?" I asked, speaking to Alice now.

"I don't know." Alice sounded frustrated. "My visions don't give information like that – I just see things, maybe gt an impression of why they're there. Nothing else." Alice sighed. "But it _looks_ like the mirror room _might _be a ballet studio."

"A ballet studio?" I repeated, confused. Why would James want to go to a ballet studio if he was tracking me? I had only taken lessons for a month when a misguided Renee had believed they would help with my balance. I hadn't taken lessons in years..... but then I remembered where my old studio was located. At the corner of Fifty-Eighth Street and Cactus Street. Right around the corner of my mother's house. My heart started to beat hard, but I didn't want to go into a full-scale panic attack without concrete evidence. "How is the room shaped?" I whispered. I remembered the layout of my old studio perfectly. If what Alice told me lined up with what I remembered, _then_ I would go into a full-scale panic attack.

"The main room is a rectangle," Alice replied, also whispering. "but there's a section that narrows in the back of the room."

That went along with what I knew the studio looked like, but I wanted to be sure. "How many steps long is it?"

"What?" Alice asked.

"I memorize a room by counting steps in each direction. Can you tell how many steps long it is?" I repeated.

"How long is a step?" Alice wanted to know. I showed her and waited for her response. "Fifty and one half steps long to the back wall," Alice breathed, "Then the room narrows fifteen steps on each side and a section extends back twelve steps. The main room is forty steps wide."

I felt the blood slither out of my face. "Why?" Jasper demanded. "Do you know this room?"

"It sounds like a place I used to take lessons at – it was right around the corner from my mom's house," I whispered.

Then the phone rang. Tense as I was, the sound made me yelp and jump a foot in the air. Jasper ghosted to my side and lightly placed his hand on my shoulder as Alice answered the phone. The unusual contact made his peaceful influence stronger.

"Carlisle," Alice told us, and continued her conversation with the Cullens' father figure. I heard Carlisle's voice on the other end say, in a tiny voice. _Alice, have you seen anything new about James?_ "Yes – I saw him get away. He's coming here, to Phoenix," Alice replied.

Carlisle sighed. _I was afraid of that. What do you want to do?_

"We need to get Bella out," Alice answered. "Sooner, rather than later."

_Edward wants to take her somewhere alone, and let the rest of us keep looking, _Carlisle said. _We're in Vancouver – there's a plane heading to Phoenix that leaves soon. Rosalie and Esme would stay in Forks to look after her father. What do you think?_

Alice sighed. "That's probably our best bet." Then sarcastically, she asked, "Does Edward want to talk to Bella?" My head snapped up, the desire to just hear Edward's voice almost closing my throat.

Carlisle laughed. _As if you needed to ask. Here he is._

I was already moving toward her with my hand stretched out eagerly for the phone. She gave it to me and I put it to my ear. "Hello?"

"Bella." Edward's voice, velvet smooth and beautiful, made my knees weak with relief. He was all right. I sank unsteadily onto the couch before I fell.

"You're safe," I breathed thankfully.

"I told you I would be," Edward reminded me. "You weren't supposed to worry."

I laughed. It had an edge of hysteria in it. "Yeah, right."

Edward's laugh was strained, too. "I miss you," he murmured.

"I miss you, too," I told him. It was an understatement. "But we'll be together soon, right? I heard Carlisle say you were coming." I hoped he was. I needed him.

"Yes," he replied, his voice hard. "And we're going to go somewhere safe."

"Okay," I whispered.

Edward sighed. "We're about to board our flight. I have to go. I'll be there soon."

"I'll be waiting." Then he hung up, and the fear began to rise up in me again. I handed the phone back to Alice and went back to the bedroom to repack what little I had taken out of my bags. I had just begun the job when the phone rang again. Alice answered it, and a woman's voice on the other end cried out in alarm, "Bella? _Bella?_" It was my mother. I bolted for the bedroom door, but Alice beat me to it and handed me the phone again.

"Bella?_ Bella?!_ What happened?" I frowned and didn't answer. I heard something in the background. People laughing, waves crashing, sea gulls giving their raucous calls.... and the voice of my grandmother, also calling my name.

"Mom?" I asked, still thinking. My Gran had died a long time ago. The last time I'd seen her was when I was twelve. My mother and I had gone to California for Thanksgiving, and one day we'd gone to the beach. I'd leaned too far over the pier and my mother had seen my legs flailing as I tried to regain my balance. And my Gran had caught it all on video.

Then I understood. I was listening to that video. A recording. And then I heard James' voice in the phone's speaker. "Don't say anything until I tell you to," he ordered. My frown deepened. What was he doing? "Now, I don't want to hurt your mother, but I will if you don't cooperate," James warned. But he didn't have my mother! What.... unless he _wanted_ me to think he did. It hit me with a flash of intuition. He didn't know how sensitive my ears were. He didn't know I wasn't fooled by his bluff. I decided to play along. I didn't say a word.

"Good," James complimented. "Now say, 'No, Mom, stay where you are',"he ordered.

I tried to make my voice pleading. "No, Mom, stay where you are," I begged.

"Very good." James' voice was casual, as though we were talking about nothing more interesting than the weather. "I was prepared to wait, but your mother came home early. I suppose it is better this way. Much less suspense for you. Now, I am going to ask you questions. Answer yes or no, please. Are you alone?"

"Yes." Alice had closed the door behind her when she'd given me the phone.

"But your friends can still hear you, I assume?"

"Yes." Their ears were even more sensitive than mine.

"I need you to get away from them. Can you do that?"

"No." It was impossible. They were watching me like hawks.

"Think harder, Bella," James chided good-naturedly. "Could you get away from them if your mother's life depended on it?"

_You don't even _have _my mother_, I longed to snarl at him. But I was still playing along. I gave him the answer he so obviously wanted. "Yes."

"Very good. I want you to go to your house. There will be a phone number on a piece of paper next to the phone – very conscientiously written in Braille, I might add. Call it, and you will receive your next instructions. Do you understand? Answer yes or no," the hunter told me.

"Yes," I replied, swallowing my fury.

"Good. I'll see you soon, then. And do come alone. Your mother will pay the price if you don't. Say, 'Goodbye, Mom. I'll see you soon'," James instructed.

"Bye, Mom," I repeated, "I'll see you soon." And then he hung up.

I snapped the cell phone closed, thinking. James didn't had my mom _this _time, but I didn't think it would take him long to figure out that he hadn't fooled me. And, when he did, I didn't think he would bother with a bluff again. Next time, he would get the real thing. I could not allow that to happen. And the only way to guarantee that James never touched my mother was to catch him. But when I didn't show up for our "meeting" he would realize that something was going on, and run. Then we would be back at square one, but with one difference – James would have more information. I had to protect my mother. I had to protect Edward and his family, even though they kept telling me they didn't need protection.

I would meet James, but I would have a plan. I wasn't going to die like _that._

By God, I was going to end this.


	17. Strategy

Disclaimer: You already know what I'm going to say. I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

To plan. I couldn't escape from the hotel room: Alice and Jasper were in between me and the door. And I definitely couldn't tell them what James had said – there was no way they'd let me go, and they'd probably watch me so much closer in case I tried to make a run for it. This was going to be freaking _impossible. _

Someone knocked gently on the door. "Bella?" Alice called.

"Yeah?" I called back. I didn't open the door – I couldn't let them see my face. They might realize I wasn't telling them something.

"Edward, Carlisle, and Emmett just boarded their plane. They'll be here in four hours."

What time was it, anyway? I asked, and Alice told me it was almost six A.M. So Edward would be here at nine. My heart ached when I realized that I wouldn't be able to see him before I went to confront James.

"We'll be meeting them at the airport," Alice added, and left me alone. Hmmm. Sky Harbor International Airport. Big, loud, and confusingly laid out. A place where Alice and Jasper had never been before – where I would be slightly more knowledgeable about my surroundings than they were. Maybe, if I could get some assistance, I could loose them there. I would have to be extremely lucky – and that didn't happen often. It was worth a try, I guessed. It wasn't like I had any other ideas. I started doing the math in my head. It was a twenty minute drive from my house to the airport. Then a five minute walk to the ballet studio – I still remembered the landmarks on the way and the number of steps required to get there. And when I got there, I was fairly certain I could keep James distracted, keep him talking, and give the Cullens enough time to get there. That was the plan – keep James in place long enough for the Cullens to get there and take him down. Turn the hunter into the prey. He thought that I thought he had my mother. He wouldn't be expecting an ambush.....

Alice's horrified gasp cut into my concentration. I made my way quickly to the door to see what was wrong. Jasper, too, was concerned. "Alice?" he asked. "What's wrong? What do you see?"

I entered the living room just in time to hear Alice reply in a flat whisper, "Bella."

"I'm here," I told her, but she didn't say anything else. The loaded silence lasted for a few seconds before I understood. Oh. Alice hadn't been calling me. She had been answering Jasper's question. She had seen something about me – something bad enough that she was rendered speechless for the moment. My stomach plunged. Maybe my plan wasn't as good as I thought it was..... but I had to try anyway. I tried to pump her for information without giving away just how frightened I was. "What did you see?" I asked. My voice was as flat and lifeless as Alice's. I could guess what she had seen – I just hoped I was wrong.

Alice was quiet for only one more second before she answered in a voice that was remarkably calm – but I could hear the fear behind her facade. "Nothing new. Just the same room as before. Did you want to eat breakfast now or later?"

I tried to keep my voice calm, and ignore the fear Alice's obvious lie about her vision had put in me. I had made my decision. I would not be swayed. "Later – I'll eat at the airport." Jasper felt the fear in the room – it was almost tangible – and he swiftly sent out a wave of calmness, which I embraced. Anything to help me keep myself together.

We all sat in front of the TV and waited for Edward's plane to arrive. Jasper and Alice were so still it was almost disturbing. I could feel their eyes following me as I paced and fidgeted. We finally left for the airport at eight. A woman at the airport's front desk told us that Edward's plane would be landing in terminal four, the largest terminal, and my plan, which had been changing constantly from one possibility to another solidified in my mind. There was a door in terminal four – in the level three ladies' room, to be exact – that was my best bet for escape. I had gotten lost once when, determined to show my worried mother that I wasn't entirely helpless without her, I had tried to walk out of the bathroom on my own. My frantic mother had found me fairly quickly with the help of a security guard, and told me that the level three ladies' room had two exits, and I had taken the wrong one. As we waited for the flight to arrive, I tried to figure out when to give Alice and Jasper the slip. If I went too early, they might come after me before Edward, Carlisle, and Emmett got there, and have to face James on their own, and I wanted them to have the rest of their family there just in case. If went too late, Edward, Carlisle, Jasper, Emmett, and Alice might catch me before I could get to James. The timing would have to be near perfect. But fate made the decision for me – while I was sitting there, debating the possibilities, Alice nudged me. "Edward's plane is early – they'll be here in twenty minutes." she murmured in my ear.

It was now or never. I nodded. "I should probably eat before he gets here so Edward and I don't have to wait before we go," I whispered back.

"Okay," Alice chirped, and we stood.

But I couldn't let Alice come with me – the plan wouldn't work. "Do you mind if Jasper comes instead?" I asked, dredging up my fear again so my voice would be unsteady. "I'm feeling a little...."

"No," Alice replied, her voice a tiny bit puzzled, but she sat back down and Jasper stood up. He placed his hand on the small of my back to help guide me as we walked.

I wasn't paying any attention to the small restaurants we passed – my attention was focused on the nearby sounds of toilets flushing and faucets running – the ladies' room I needed. The restroom's door hinges squeaked when someone opened it, and the sound was right in front of me. I stopped. "Do you mind?" I murmured to Jasper. "I'll just be a minute."

He stepped back, and said, "I'll be right here."

I pulled open the bathroom door and stepped in. And then I almost stepped right back out. The bathroom was crowded. Women were talking to each other and chattering on their cell phones. Bracelets jingled as they washed their hands. Water ran, toilets flushed, high heels clacked on the floors, and the hand driers roared. It was so _loud_. And the materials the bathroom was made out of didn't help either. Each tiny sound ricocheted like tennis balls off the mirrors, tile walls, metal stalls, and linoleum floors, making it impossible to discern where the sounds came from and hard to navigate. Farther-away sounds had a hard time breaking through that wall of sound, but I could barely hear the creak of another pair of door hinges on the other side of the giant restroom. I made my way forward as quickly as I could, keeping close to the walls and doing my best to avoid the lines of women. I didn't always succeed.

But it didn't take me long to find the other door, and I burst out of the bathroom. The airport itself was loud, too, but it was easier to hear because the sounds were not as confined as they had been in the restroom. So I didn't have as much trouble hearing the elevators dinging a little further down the hall. It wasn't quiet enough for me to hear Jasper of Alice, so I had to hope that they hadn't noticed my absence yet. But I didn't think it would take them much longer. I ran to the elevators – tripping over a couple of rolling suitcases in the process – and aimed for one whose doors I could hear closing. I thrust my hand in between them just in time, and squeezed into the already full elevator to the sound of annoyed murmurs behind me. Breathlessly, I asked if the button for the ground level had been pushed. A few aggravated voices confirmed that it had, so I tried to catch my breath while I could.

Every time the doors opened, I asked if we were at level one yet. I'm sure I annoyed the other people, but a mistake on my part would mess everything up. Then the doors opened, and I could hear automatic doors whirring in the distance, and beyond that, car engines. I was there. I launched myself toward the door sounds, managing to only slam into one person, and barely not crashing into the sliding doors. Then I was outside, on the curb. But how was I supposed to find a cab?! I could tell a car engine from a truck engine, and a gas engine from a diesel, but there were several car engines nearby. I hadn't thought of this. Just as I was about to really start freaking out, someone asked me if I needed a cab, and, when I said yes, waved one over for me. I almost cried with gratitude, but I had other things to do. I told the cab driver my address, and, after convincing him that the drive was worth his while by throwing all the money I had over the seat – which was _way_ more than was required – we drove away.

The ride to my house was a blur. I can't really remember much – just wild impatience, and the effort of keeping my act together. When we stopped, I jumped out of the cab and ran up my driveway. The front door of my house was unlocked, and no one was inside. Following James' instructions, I went to the phone, and easily found the number he wanted me to call. But I didn't call it. First, I had another, more important call to make. I dialed Alice's number, which I remembered from when she had told me it to leave it on my mom's answering machine. It didn't even finish ringing once before Alice answered it. "Hello?" she growled tensely. I could heard Edward, Emmett, and Jasper shouting in the background over the roar of a car's engine. They were driving _fast_.

"Alice," I said, trying to keep my voice calm. I needed to at least _seem_ like I was calm and in control of the situation. I had some serious convincing to do.

There were gasps from all five vampires in the car, then Edward's voice was shouting in my ear. "_Bella!_" he cried, relief thick in his voice. His words poured out so fast I had to really concentrate to catch them all. "Thank God! Are you all right? Where are you? Your mother's house?" He didn't give me time to answer. "Don't move! We're on our way – we'll be there in twenty minutes, and we'll get you." Then the relief wore off and her started to get angry. "What were you _thinking?!_ Have you lost your mind? Are you trying to get yourself killed? That was so incredibly foolish -"

"Edward -" I tried to begin, but he cut me off.

"No. Not a word. We're almost there."

I talked over him. "He says he has my mom."

Edward stopped talking for a second. "He spoke to you?"

"He called me at the hotel," I told him.

Edward growled deep in his throat. "We'll get you out, then take care of your mother."

"That might be difficult," I said dryly. _Keep cool, Bella_, I told myself. "Especially since he doesn't really have her."

"_Then what are you doing?!_" Edward roared.

I made my voice hard. "He didn't have her _this _time. But I can't know he won't go get her. I _will not_ let that happen."

Edward snarled, and I heard the car's engine rev as he gave it more gas. "What do you plan to _do_?" he demanded. "You can't hurt him."

"But you can," I pointed out. "I'm just the bait."

"NO!" he shouted into the phone. "No! No, no, no, no, _no!_ Do you honestly think I'm going to let you do that?!"

"I'm already _am_ doing it," I snapped. "I just need you to work with me. Ask Alice how long it will take you to get here." Edward just snarled in reply. I thought fast. As much as I loved Edward, I needed to talk to someone who would look at this situation strategically, not emotionally. I needed someone who would help me pull this off. I needed..... "Give Jasper the phone," I ordered.

"No." Edward was absolute.

"_Edward!_" I hissed. "Give Jasper the phone or I'm hanging up and you'll just have to go into this blind."

I don't know if he finally realized that I was serious or if Jasper took the phone away from him, but the next voice I heard was Jasper's deep, calm one. "Bella," he greeted me solemnly. "What is it you need?"

"I need to know when you'll get here," I told him, my voice as businesslike as I could make it while my stomach was in knots. "An exact time."

Jasper murmured something to Alice, and she murmured something back to him, and then he told me, "We will be there in seventeen minutes. What are you planning to do?"

"I will wait at my mom's house until you're closer, then go to meet James. I stall until you get there, and you kill him."

"That might not work," Jasper informed me. "He might hear us coming."

I swallowed. "I'm also the distraction. Besides, he thinks I think he has my mom. He won't be expecting this."

"This is _very_ dangerous for you, Bella." Jasper's voice wasn't so calm anymore. "There is a very good chance you'll be killed."

"I have to protect my family." I knew that Jasper would do anything to protect Alice, so I added, "And I'm trying to protect all of you. Think about," I coaxed. "The longer he's at large, the more chance he has of hurting Edward ..... or Alice."

Jasper growled. "That was underhanded, Bella."

"But was it successful?" I asked. "Jasper, I'm going to do this. Stop trying to convince me not to, and start trying to make sure I live through it. Ask Alice to give me some times."

I guess I convinced them, because Alice's voice was suddenly talking into the phone. "Bella," she began, "I'll help, but if you survive, I'm going to kill you for putting me through this. This call will be six minutes and twenty-one seconds long. After I hang up, call James immediately. That call will last another forty-five seconds, then your walk to the studio will take five minutes and thirty-seven seconds. James will gloat for about two minutes, and that's where my visions start to get hazy, but I'm ninety percent sure that we'll make it in time to keep you from getting killed. Call James now." And she hung up.

I obeyed her, and called the number James had left for me. "That was quick," James observed lightly when he picked up the phone.

I didn't dawdle. "What do you want me to do?"

"Do you remember your old ballet studio?"

"Yes," I replied tersely.

"I'll see you there, then," the hunter said casually, and hung up. I hung up my phone, too, and walked back out my front door. I walked carefully, desperate to not make any mistakes. I extended my hand to touch the eucalyptus tree at the end of my driveway. My palm encountered the bark. I had reached my first landmark. I turned and started to walk down the sidewalk, touching each houses' mailbox to keep myself on track. I touched the thirteenth mailbox and turned right. Landmark two. Sixty steps forward, and I found the palm tree planted in front of the dance studio. Landmark three. I walked forward until I found the sidewalk, then turned right and walked until my outstretched hand found the glass door. Finding the door handle was easy from there. The door was unlocked. I took a deep breath and opened the door to the building where James waited to kill me.


	18. Ambush

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

The dance studio was very quiet. The only sounds were the air conditioning and James' quiet breathing. But I wasn't going to let on that I knew he was there. I stayed where I was, listening to my thundering heart beat. My _mind_ knew that walking into a trap set by a vampire who wanted to kill me was all a part of the plan, but my body didn't. Adrenaline poured into my bloodstream, and my most deeply-rooted instincts cried for me to run away. I didn't. I just waited for James to act. Let him think that he still controlled the game.

It didn't take him long to go on with his plan. "Good to see you again, Bella," he said cordially, like we were friends who hadn't seen each other in a while.

I played the part I was supposed to play – the frightened daughter, come to save her mother from certain death. "Where's my mom?" I whispered. I didn't have to try to make myself sound afraid – I was terrified.

James chuckled, and started to walk toward me. I had to use almost all my will to make myself stay put. "Well, you see, Bella," James began as he walked. "Your mother would have been extra baggage – one more loose end that needed to be taken care of, and I didn't want to take that risk."

I shuddered at the implication in his voice, and I was even more grateful that James had never touched my mother. "What did you do to her?" I demanded. My voice cracked perfectly.

James chuckled again, this time like he was enjoying a private joke. "Nothing," he replied.

I understood his amusement immediately – he had done nothing, as in, he had never taken her from Florida in the first place, but I played dumb. "Then where is she?" I cried, inserting more panic into my voice.

The sadistic hunter laughed, enjoying my fear just like any other tormentor would. This was what the game was about for him – the victim's fear, the feeling of having total control over them, of feeling more powerful than they were. "In Florida," James said. "I told you, I did nothing to her. Kidnapping and dragging her to Arizona doesn't sound like nothing, wouldn't you agree?"

I swallowed, and tried to make my face as realistically horrified as I could, like I had just then figured out James' trick. "You don't even have her," I breathed. Tears of the relief I felt filled my eyes, adding nicely to the charade.

James' laugh was darker now, crueler. "No. I never did. It was just the matter of the bluff." He started to circle me. "I thought you might go to Phoenix after I realized you weren't with your Edward and Victoria found your previous address in Forks High School, but I wasn't sure. Your note for your father said you were going there, and how foolish would it be to hide where you said you'd be? Surely you would be smarter than that – but then I wondered. Wouldn't that be a perfect ploy? So I went to your house and watched all your old videos – doing my research, I suppose you could say. That's where I got my sample of your mother's voice. But I still didn't know for sure. And then, lo and behold, Victoria told me that your stupid boyfriend had gotten on a plane to Phoenix. Ironic, don't you think, that the person who was trying to protect you ended up telling me where you were? And by then I was ready. I set my little trap. And here you are," he finished victoriously.

"But, to be honest, this game hasn't been as interesting as I'd hoped. So I'm going to give it a twist." I heard him take something out of his pocket, and I heard the device whir very softly as he turned it on. "I'm hoping that your Edward's fury when he finds this video of our time together will be more fun than his rather pathetic attempt to protect you. So I'm afraid that your death will not be as quick as it might have been if Edward had done a better job of keeping you safe – I need him to be good and angry, and I think the best way to ensure that is to make your death rather painful. Sorry." I blanched. James had explained why he was going to torture me in such a calm way – it made what I knew what was coming seem even worse.

I staggered back a step, toward the door, trembling. But James' hand was suddenly around my wrist, yanking me into the middle of the dance floor. The sound of my panicked breathing filled the room. My knees shook, and I trained my wide eyes on the spot where I could hear James breathing, even though it would do no good. But there, in the distance but approaching fast, was the sound of a car engine, pushed to its limit of speed. Somewhere, deep in my soul, I knew it was the Cullens. They were coming for me. Soon this whole thing would be over. That certainty pushed back the cloud of fear enough that I could think a little. It wouldn't do me any good if James found out they were coming before they got there. He would only kill me quicker and run. It was time to give the Cullens a little cover-up. Time to make some noise. "_What are you going to_ do_ to me?_" I screeched, shrilly and loudly, taking a step away from James. _Stall him_, I thought fiercely.

James chuckled evilly. "Do you really want to know?" He took three steps forward, closing the distance between us.

"Stay away from me!" I shrieked. The car engine was closer now.

James laughed, and growled. He ran to me in a flurry of footsteps, and gripped my shoulder, hard enough to make me wince. He sighed. "You really should blame Edward for this," he told me. "If he had just made the game more interesting, this wouldn't be necessary." His hand tightened suddenly, his thumb pressing my collar bone. My frail human bone was not strong enough to withstand that swift pressure. It snapped like a dry twig. At first I was so stunned that I didn't feel the pain, but then I _did_ feel it. I screamed. I couldn't help it. My other arm instinctively tried to bat James' hand away, but James was too strong, too hard, too fast. He grabbed the hand that had tried to hit him, and used it to twist my arm behind my back. His iron hands were unyielding, and he kept pulling and twisting my arm farther up until, with sick, wet pops, he dislocated my shoulder and elbow. I had barely finished screaming after he'd broken my collar bone – this made me scream louder.

He let go of me then, and I slumped to the ground, cradling my arm, my cries of pain dying in my throat. "Does it hurt?" he snarled.

"YES!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Anything to make him stop hurting me.

James then proceeded to pick me up by the back of my shirt and drop-kick me across the ballet studio. My flight was a very short one – even in this big room, he kicked me hard enough to send me crashing into the mirrors on the opposite wall within a second. Any breath that might not have been knocked out of me when James kicked me was definitely knocked out of me when I slammed into the wall. Pain shot across my ribcage like lightning as I slid to the floor, and intensified when I landed on my freshly shattered ribs. James was over me again in a flash. "Tell Edward," he growled, "how much it hurts." I was too stunned to obey, and my disobedience cost me – James' foot came down hard on my right leg, which broke just as easily as my collar bone had, eliciting a fresh scream from me. My broken ribs screamed, too, in protest of the action. "SCREAM FOR EDWARD," James roared, lost in his sick game. "_TELL HIM TO MAKE IT STOP!_"

I wasn't about to disobey again, so, pain or no pain, I screamed, "EDWARD!" as loudly as I could.

But then the worst thing in the world happened. The Cullens must have been close enough to hear my scream. Because, as soon as the anguished cry left my lips, an equally tortured scream replied. "_BELLA!_" Edward howled, a mixture of terror, horror, and fury in his angel's voice. And his voice was close.

James heard him. A shocked, infuriated hiss tore from between his teeth, and in the next instant, a cold hand fastened around my neck, and I was flying through the air again. A startled scream managed to make its way out of my now-bruised throat before I crashed into another wall, with much more force than the last time. The only two thoughts that passed through my mind was, one, that James had been holding back at first, and, two, that I couldn't feel the pain in my ribs, leg, of collar bone anymore. Then heavy darkness wrapped itself around me and pulled me down, down, down, into unconsciousness.

Edward's Point of View

We were right on schedule. We were going to make it to the dance studio in time to save Bella from James. Everything was going to be all right. But all it took to make us late was something that Alice couldn't have foreseen. A child, no more than five years old, ran out into the road in front of us after a ball. That was all. But I had to slam on the brakes and swerve to keep from plowing over him. At the speed we were going, the impact would have killed him several times over. The little boy screamed and rushed into the arms of his mother, who had come running. I was already driving again, but Alice's visions had been depending on us driving full-speed to the dance studio with no obstacles. And we had almost stopped, and had to climb back up to our previous speed. I didn't need the horrifying pictures Alice was seeing now to tell me what I knew. We were running late. It wasn't even by a full minute, but it was enough. Maybe even enough to mean death for Bella. No. I could not think of that. I would get there in time. I had to. The other option was too terrible to contemplate. But Alice could not control what she saw – James telling Bella that he was going to leave a video of what he did to her for me, James breaking her bones, throwing her into walls. The images painted my vision red with fury. I could read his mind now, even as he twisted Bella's arm up behind her back, could feel the reverberations of her joints popping out of socket through his hands, could hear her screams through his ears. He hoped that seeing the things he did to her would make me angry enough to come after him. It would. It would do much, much more than that. It would infuriate me almost past reason. But that didn't mean I wouldn't hunt him down like the animal he was, wouldn't tear him into the smallest pieces possible, put him back together, and tear him apart again, and burn him until there was nothing left. I would do all that, and more. He would suffer for ever hurting my Bella. But after I had finished with him, what would I do? My body shuddered, trying to reject the pain the thought of living without Bella had brought me. I would not be able to live through it. I refused. I would not live without her.

We were so close now. Just over one minute. That didn't stop James from kicking Bella across the room like a football. I heard her ribs break under his foot. I shuddered again, seeing it all through James' sick, twisted eyes. I could see Bella's stunned and pained face under him as he loomed over her. "Tell Edward how much it hurts," he growled at her. I could see how much he loved her pain in his mind. When Bella didn't respond, I heard his glee turn into fury. _How dare she disobey me!_ I heard him scream in his mind. I _control the game! She _will_ do what I say, or she'll regret it_. And he made her regret it. He stomped down on her right leg. Bella screamed again. We were close enough that I could hear her with my ears, along with the rest of my family. Alice's mouth opened in a silent scream, and Carlisle, Emmett, and Jasper went whiter than usual. All their thoughts were one the same track:_ She never should have done this. We never should have let her do this._ I agreed, wished with every fiber of my being that I could have stopped her.

The tracker spoke again. "SCREAM FOR EDWARD!" James shouted at Bella. We all shuddered. "_TELL HIM TO MAKE IT STOP!_"

Alice was screaming silently, her mouth still open. My expression mimicked hers, as did the tenor of my thoughts. Bella screamed again, and I could see her agonized, terrified face in James' mind. That – seeing her face in his mind – is probably what made me react the way I did when Bella screamed my name. "EDWARD!" she shrieked desperately, begging for help.

It was more than I could bear. "_BELLA!_" I screamed back. I was coming. I was _so close_ – the studio was just down the street. But then I realized my mistake – James had heard me. _NO_, he roared in his mind, and growled out loud. We were in the parking lot now, jumping out of the car like we were being chased and running through the bright sunlight for a split second before we crashed through the dance studio's doors – there was no time to open them. I reached the main dance floor – the room from Alice's vision – just in time to see James heft Bella by her throat and hurl her screaming, broken form into a wall.

A human body is not built to withstand that kind of force. Bella's body was no exception. She slammed into the mirrors hard enough to break through them, the plywood behind them, and then the wooden support beams in the wall. Underneath the sound of breaking wood was the sound of Bella's skull, ribs, and other assorted bones shattering. And then, even worse, the louder crack of her spine snapping. And I forgot about James. I ran straight to Bella, let Jasper and Emmett handle James. I got to her at the same time as Carlisle, who was already assessing the damage and trying to figure out what to do about it. He didn't dare move her – not with a broken spine – so he tried to examine her unconscious body while it was still resting in the Bella-shaped hole in the wall. The inventory he took was worse than I wanted to think about. I couldn't handle hearing his thoughts. I tried to block him out. But I couldn't escape the random thoughts that slipped in through my guard. _Severe head trauma_..... _perforated lungs_..... _internal bleeding_...... _head lacerations_. I hadn't even noticed the blood. I was trying so hard to keep Carlisle's voice out of my mind, that he had to call my name out loud in order to get my attention. "_Edward!_" he called sharply, franticly. His hand were busy doing what little good he could do under the circumstances. "Edward, I can't treat her here!" His thoughts had a helpless, frantic edge to them that I'd never heard before. "She may not even survive the ride to the hospital!" I didn't understand what he was saying. "And even if she does, she'll probably be in a wheel chair for the rest of her life!"

"Worse," Alice breathed, lost in a new vision. Bella would make it to the hospital, and she would be paralyzed form the neck down – but she wouldn't notice because she would never wake up from the coma she'd be in. Renee would sit by her bedside for two months begging her to wake up before she lost hope. Bella would only last for another five months before she died.

Agony washed over me. I'd failed. I was going to loose her. A cry of loss broke through my constricted throat, and I started to weep in the only way a vampire can, without tears. Carlisle reached across Bella and gripped me by my shoulder. He shook me. "There is another option," he told me fiercely. "You can still save her." I saw what he meant in his mind and cringed away from the image.

"No." my voice was something between a moan and a scream.

"What other option is there?" Alice wailed. "To let her die? I didn't even know that _was_ an option!"

Carlisle looked me in the eye, his hands still busy trying to save Bella's life. His next words were only for me. _I can do nothing. No doctor can. She _will_ die. It is your choice. But we have little time, my son. You must choose quickly._

I already knew what I had to do. I met his gentle, understanding gaze for a second more. Then I bent over Bella's broken body. "I'm so sorry," I breathed in her ear. She would hate me for taking her life away. But what else could I do? I glanced up at Carlisle for a millisecond. "Make sure I stop," I begged, and sunk my teeth into the skin of her ruined throat.


	19. Beautiful

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does.

Bella's Point of View

The next thing I was aware of was pain. But it wasn't the sharp pain of the broken bones I knew I had – it was a burning. And, even more strangely, it was only in my head and neck. I couldn't feel the rest of my body, but my face, my head, my throat and the rest of my neck were on fire. I felt like I had stuck my head into a burning fireplace, only worse. As though someone had injected molten rock into my veins. I felt my face contort into a grimace. I stiffly turned my head to the side, trying to pull myself out of the flames that were surely devouring my skin. But the pain didn't fade. If anything, it grew worse as my mind became more and more clear, forced into awareness by the fire. I needed to get away from it! I tried to move my arms and legs, tried to twist my torso, and failed. It was like my head had been disconnected form my body and was floating around in a volcano, totally unable to get itself out. I tried again to move, but I might as well have not had limbs of any kind. For a moment, I wasn't sure if I _did_ have them anymore.

My mind cleared more. What was _happening_ to me?! I was so sure I'd heard Edward's voice before James had knocked me unconscious by throwing me into a wall. Had I been wrong? Had Edward's voice been an illusion made up by a desperate mind? Did James still have me? Was _he_ doing this to me? No, I was sure I'd heard Edward. Maybe he was still close, but couldn't find me. I should call him. He would make this fiery torture stop. I opened my mouth to scream. But I couldn't, because I couldn't feel my lungs, or the muscles required to push air out of them. I couldn't scream, couldn't speak at all, couldn't move. I was trapped here, wherever here was, and no one could come help me, because _I couldn't tell them where I was!_ And if I couldn't make a sound, how was I supposed to tell them to kill me? The burning was so intense. It was unbearable – but I didn't have a choice other than to bear it. I wanted to die. I wanted to have never been born. I wanted the darkness again. Oblivion. _Where was Edward? _Why couldn't he find me?

Or was I dead? Was I, quite literally, burning in Hell?

I couldn't inhale. But suddenly my lungs filled with air on their own accord. And, as the air left my lungs – also without any help from me – I found I could scream. It was not the loud siren of sound I wanted to make, just a soft sigh. But it was enough. Soft hands that should have been cold but weren't stroked my face. "Bella?" Edward whispered in my ear. It was hard to hear him, though – the fire scrambled my mind and made it almost impossible to concentrate on anything accept the pain. The overwhelming, intolerable, impossible, terrible, fiery pain. The pain that made me want to claw my veins out of my skin with my bare hands – except I couldn't _move_ my hands.

My lungs filled with air again. As it flowed out, I breathed one plea for help. "Edward," I said in the tiny sigh that was the only thing I could produce.

Edward made a choked sound, but I couldn't remember why that should bother me. I just wanted the pain to end. Or me to end. Either way, as long as this pain stopped, _stopped_, STOPPED! I gave another sigh-scream. In my mind I was much more vocal than I was on the outside. In my mind, I screamed and thrashed and shrieked and writhed and begged for death and asked for someone – _anyone_ – to kill me because I COULDN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE and I was going to loose my mind if someone didn't put me out of my misery. _ NOW! Please!_

And that's how it was for a while. Time did not exist. It was just me and the pain. Edward and the other Cullens murmured apologies and promises that it would end soon every time I gave my approximation of a scream. Their words were meaningless. Just jabber in the background of the fire. Once, I opened my eyes, but the strange blurs of light and shadow I could now see didn't tell me anything. I closed my eyes again.

And then, when I thought the fire couldn't _possibly_ get any worse, it did. All of the sudden, the broken connection between my neck and body that had pinned me in place was healed. I could feel my arms, legs, and the rest of my body. And I wished I couldn't. Because the fire was there, too, scorching my veins, charring my tissues, melting my bones. Instead of helping me get away from the fire like I'd hoped it would, the rest of my body just pushed me down deeper into it. I was falling into it, careening down, down, down like a bird on broken wings. It was so much worse than I could have _ever_ imagined. There are no words to describe it. _AHHHHH!!!!_ The wordless scream had been in my head ever since I'd woken up. Now that I could feel my lungs again, I gasped air in. Then the scream I'd been longing to let go of came out. It was long, shrill and loud, and used up all the breath I had in my body. Every muscle in my body spasmed, rejecting the pain they could now register. My back arched, my body twisted and thrashed, trying to escape the fire, the pain. All to no avail. The fingers on my right hand curled into claws and raked down my left arm in an attempt to tear out my veins, the passageways of this burning poison. Hard hands restrained me, tried to hold me down so I didn't hurt myself. I fought them, wrenching myself this way and that, convulsing in time to the racing heart I could now feel in my chest. I only stopped screaming so I could gasp in more air to scream again. I _begged_ them to kill me. I said I'd do anything, _anything_, if they'd just make this pain stop. I apologized again and again for anything I might have done to make them hurt me like this. I didn't understand what was happening, or why. Carlisle and Edward tried to explain what was happening to me, but I couldn't hear them very well over my pounding heart. I randomly remembered something I think I'd read once about third-degree burns – that after a person burned a certain amount, the nerve endings in the body died, and they couldn't feel the pain anymore. I wondered why that hadn't happened to me yet. Surely I'd burned long enough.

But slowly, slowly, my reason returned to me. I remembered Edward, and what I must be doing to him, screaming like I was. The fire did not diminish. I actually became more sensitive to it – to the burning of each individual cell of _every_ tissue in _every _part of my _whole_ body. But my mind was so much more flexible, too. While I was not able to forget the pain – far from it – I was able to think _around_ it. And I could think of why I should not scream. So, even though I wanted to keep writhing and crying out, I made myself stop. I cut myself off mid-scream, and ground my teeth together with much more force than I'd been able to muster before the fire began. I wrestled every individual part of my body into submission, forcing it to stay still. I couldn't relax, though – I kept myself rigid as a board.

My senses were sharper, too. I could smell Edward close to me, hear him breathing. I could smell Carlisle, too, and Jasper. They all seemed surprised by my stillness. "Bella?" Edward whispered. I didn't dare respond – if I opened my mouth, I would start screaming again. And I didn't want to hurt him more than I already had.

Carlisle spoke too. "Jasper, what is she feeling?" he whispered

Whatever Jasper felt coming off of me, it made Edward laugh when he heard it in Jasper's thoughts. His laughter sounded more like a sob, though. "Bella, if you can hear me, don't worry about hurting my feelings, love. I _deserve_ it."

I disagreed silently. _Nothing_ could make Edward deserve being hurt. My resolve hardened. I would not make another sound.

Carlisle disagreed too. "No, you don't. You saved her life."

"But she's in so much _pain_," Edward breathed, and he sounded like he was burning, too.

Carlisle spoke to me this time. "Bella, I'm going to try to explain again. You had extensive injuries. There was nothing I could do. You were dying, and Edward chose to change you into one of us. The pain you feel is vampire venom making its way through your system. It will end when the change is over, which shouldn't be too much longer. I know it hurts – we all remember – and I'm so incredibly sorry, but it was the only way to save your life."

I wished I could nod or something to show him I understood, but if I moved, I would loose any control I had over myself. I almost opened my eyes again, but then I decided not to. Edward would see the pain in them.

But while Carlisle had told me that the pain would be over soon, he did _not_ tell me that it would get worse before it got better. Oh, the pain started to fade from my fingers and toes, but all that venom had to go _somewhere_, and that somewhere happened to be my already-burning heart. My heart's staccato beat increased in speed under the burden of this new pain, and, despite my promise that I would not make another sound, a whimper broke through my clenched teeth. My hands curled into hard fists as I resisted the urge to move. Carlisle whispered, "Not much longer now, Bella."

Edward held my hand tightly. "It's almost over," he promised.

I tried to believe them, but the pain was still fading from my limbs and retreating into my heart, which burned hotter than sun. I wanted to die again. I fought the pain so hard my body shook with the effort. The burning increased. I twitched. Hotter still. I threw back my head and whimpered again. Hotter. The pain had faded to just my torso now. My back arched a little against my will. The pain was starting to scatter my concentration. I held onto it by my fingertips. _Hotter_. A keen started to creep out of my throat. I was shaking violently, trying not to thrash. HOTTER! It was all in my heart now, which pounded on with its death march. _BURNING!_ The one last flair of pain ripped through my chest like an explosion. One scream burst out of me, and my back arched like the fire had yanked me up sharply by my searing heart.

My heart thumped, stuttered, and stopped. Nobody breathed. All was still. I slumped flat on the table I realized I was on. I didn't open my eyes. Tentatively, almost afraid the action would bring the fire back, I took a deep breath. Without the fire distracting me, I could smell so much! Much, much more than I had been able to smell as a human. I could smell Edward, Carlisle, and Jasper's unique scents, and the cotton and denim they were wearing. I could smell the wood, paint, and furniture of the building I was in – which I recognized by smell to be the Cullens' house. Edward's scent permeated the particular room I was in. I guessed it was his. I listened. I could hear the wind in the trees, the pitter-patter of the rain on the leaves and on the roof of the house – it made different noises on each different surface. I could hear seven vampires breathing quietly, three in the same room as me, four downstairs. Animals ran through the forest – I could hear their heartbeats. The sound made my throat burn dryly. I was thirsty, I realized. The range of my hearing awed me. I'd thought my ears had been sensitive as a human, but _this_ was amazing!

The hand that had been in mine through the whole transformation process squeezed my hand gently. It didn't feel cold anymore – it was, after all, the same temperature as mine was now. "Bella?" Edward whispered. He didn't sound so tortured now. "Will you open your eyes?"

A thrill of fear and excitement went through me. I'd gone my whole life without being able to see. And now I was pretty sure I could. The thought thrilled me. But still, to step out of what was so familiar – even comfortable, in its own way – was nerve wracking. "I'm scared," I admitted in a whisper.

Edward took my other hand. "I'm here," he told me.

I smiled. Yes, Edward was there, as he had always been and as I suspected he would always be. That knowledge gave me the courage to step out into the unknown. I held both of Edward's hands tightly, and carefully opened my eyes. My attention was pulled in two different directions at the same time by the new things I could see. The back wall of Edward's room was a giant window. Through it I could see, all for the first time, the trees – _green_ – and the sky. _Blue_, a corner of my mind realized.

But the greater part of my mind was focused on the face of the man next to me. He was very beautiful with his pale, smooth skin, wide, ocher eyes framed by a thick fringe of dark lashes, and messy, bronze-colored hair. Every feature of his face was perfectly angular, and his mouth had been carved by angels. I was looking at the man I loved. For the first time, I was seeing Edward's face. A huge smile spread across my face. I reached up to touch his marble cheek with my right hand, which was still clasped in his. "I can see you," I whispered, awed. My voice had the same bell-like quality that Edward's had.

Edward took the hand that was resting on his cheek and pressed it to his lips. His golden eyes stared into mine with an intensity that I had never been able to appreciate before now, but could definitely get used to. "You've always seen me better that anyone else," he told me, with a gentle smile on his angel's mouth.

I laughed, and was startled again by how different I sounded. "Not like this," I reminded him. I sat up, and held his face between my hands. "You're beautiful," I told Edward softly.

And to this day, Edward is still the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

**A/N: The end. And they all lived happily ever after! I hope you liked it. Thanks to everyone for reviewing! **


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